First Day of School {2014}

Today was Sarah’s first day of Preschool!

To prepare for the big day, we got her a backpack (thanks aunty Oshrat!) and a new lunch box.

Even when Sarah and I attend Mommy and Me I had her hold a sign that listed her age and the first day of school. I have horrible writing so I’ve always made her sign on the computer. Since this was a big milestone for us, I went on Etsy and bought her a chalkboard sign that I placed in a frame.

The night before we laid out her new outfit, backpack and sign to make the morning as easy as possible.

I don’t normally tell Sarah what we are doing or where we are going until that morning due to her anxiety. However this event was discussed for a couple weeks before hand. We checked out books about school from the library, we shopped for it and we even play pretend school. 

The night before her big day Sarah really started to get excited!

At one point, she laid all her clothes on the floor and made a “Sarah” out them.

Daddy read her a story and off to bed she went.

In the mean time, I was busy prepping her lunch. Sarah is not a picky eater, but she does have her favorites. So I made sure to give her all of her favorite things.

I packed a cheese sandwich, strawberries, cantaloupe, ABC Cheez-It crackers, blueberry granola bar and seaweed.  The teacher mentioned that the kids were really excited from the novelty of it all and didn’t eat much lunch. Sarah ate most of her snacks, but didn’t really touch her cheese sandwich.

Sarah has been waking up earlier the past few weeks, so I didn’t need my alarm clock after all. Everything was prepared and it’s place so there wasn’t any running around.

For breakfast I made her one of her favorites, Minnie Mouse pancakes and strawberries.

We got dressed and started our traditional first day of school pictures. Lucky Sarah was in a really good mood so I only took a few pictures.

And because I love comparisons pictures, here is Sarah on her first day of school this year and last year.

Sarah and I were one of the first ones to arrive. Imagine that! We met up with the teacher who showed us to the playground. We played for a few minutes until the assistant teacher came out to release the parents. I walked up to Sarah and let her know it was time for the mommies to leave. She asked me where I was going and I simply told her, “errands.” She said “Ok, bye mommy”. I gave her a tight squeeze and then walked away. I didn’t turn around to see her reaction. I simply kept walking.

From past experiences this technique works for us.

I know she will have a lot of fun so I didn’t want to make my exit a long process.

I got a lot done during school. I went back home and cleaned up a bit , went to a doctor’s appointment, went grocery shopping and was back at her school 15 minutes early ready for dismissal.

All the moms stood outside the door patiently waiting for our preschoolers to come out and tell us about their big day. One mom had the idea to take a picture of her son as he was called to come outside and meet his mom, so I got my camera ready as well for when it was Sarah’s turn to come outside.

I was so happy to see my little munchkin! I missed her! Not like I wish she was with me instead, but it was nice to see her. She looked so mature as she came out of her classroom.

She ran up to me and said, “Hi mommy!” I hugged her tightly and we walked to the car holding hands. I tried to enjoy this special moment, but I could tell she was bursting to tell me about her big day. I tried to write most of her responses down when we got home. It was just too cute to hear her talk about her day while she was at her big girl school.

I’m so happy she had a good experience. However, I was worried that I would get a call during the day telling me that she was hitting kids (a horrible phase we are going through).

Looking forward to her new journey and completing my long list of things to do.