P is for Preschool

Our girl loves preschool! I laugh a bit now when I think that I was worried that Ella's preschool only offered an everyday schedule. If she didn't go every day, I think we'd have a revolution at our house. We've always read with Ella, as well as incorporated numbers, colors, shapes, and letters into our play. I'm amazed to see how much she's progressed in school after only a month and half, though. My favorite part about school is how excited she is to be independent about putting on her shoes, zipping her coat, going potty, etc.

We had our first parent/teacher conferences last week and I was so impressed by the detailed information her teacher provided, as well as the goals she created for Ella during this quarter. They were simple and achievable and something we could work together on at home as well. Her school is the only NEAYC accredited program in the area, as well as being a public preschool. We're so happy that we have the opportunity to send her to this school!

I wrote an article on Ella's school recently for the Source (go to my Scribd link to read this when the issue posts). They asked me to take pictures as well, so I was able to take a few of Ella in action. She cracked me up, because she barely noticed my presence and just went on busily about her business.

I love seeing how much she thrives in a learning environment and it's so fun to talk to her about school every day. She inevitably answers the question, "What did you do at school today?" with "Painted" and "Rode the school bus." (She rides the bus home because she insisted on it and loves it). Today I tried asking specific questions about what she did and she'd just say, "Yeah." I said, "Did you put your pants on your head?" and random stuff like that. At first, she just responded, "Yeah," but then I saw a twinkle in her eye as she responded. Funny girl!

The school does a terrific job of engaging parents in the units they do at school. The first month, they focused on colors and now Ella loves to frequently ask, "What color is this, mommy?" Her vocabulary (which was already strong) has also increased in this short amount of time, as well as her sentence structure. I especially love her excellent use of "please" and "thank you." :0)