This was Sydney's first week of pre-preschool!
Since before Sydney was born, we have talked about schools and thought it would be neat to put her in one of the immersion programs offered through the school district (Japanese, Spanish, or Russian). The more we talked about it, we were really leaning towards the Japanese immersion for many different reasons. Well, a few months ago I noticed a commercial on TV (which is so rare these days as what TV is watched, it is normally taped and commercials are just passed on by!) for Children's Garden Montessori that is a Japanese immersion school, preschool through 6th grade. As we started to look into it, we grew more and more interested. Not only was it the language we wanted, but it was a true Montessori school--which, the more we learned about the method, the greater our excitement became.
So, one school tour later, and many questions answered, we wanted to put Sydney's name on the waiting list for the preschool program that starts at age 3. The school director mentioned that they offer a toddler program starting at 18 months and that they had a spot available if we were interested in that. 18 months meant only a month away...here we were walking into the school thinking we had another year and a half to prepare, not just one month! If Sydney were to start the toddler program, she would then go into preschool when she was ready, even if that turned out to be before the age of 3.
As I was tearing up just thinking about my baby going off to school in just mere weeks, we obviously had to go home and mull it over...pray about it...and look at financing. We found out that Sydney could go in at any time we felt comfortable, whether it was at 18 months, the summer program, or the beginning of the school year in the fall. The regular school semester hours for this age group is 9-3 five days a week. It seemed like a huge shock to Sydney's schedule if we were to do that, so we opted to start her this summer as they are more flexible with the hours. She could do half or full days, however many days of the week we wanted. So, this gave us a couple months to just let it all sink in and get ready for it.
Well, the time has officially arrived! (Technically she starts on May 31st, but we did a couple days this week to just get our toes wet.) She will be going Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9-3.
A big change, other than the obvious, will be getting up in the mornings! UGH! It was an eye opener these past couple of days to head out the door around 8:45 am and realize that the city is alive and people are actually out and about! We are not morning people! Anyway- we have been working on Sydney's bedtime and slowly pushing it up the last month and a half or so. She used to go to bed between 10 and 11 pm (remember, Brian works nights and this has always been our schedule) and get up usually around 11:30 or 12. As the bedtime got earlier and earlier, one would think her waking hour would get earlier and earlier...but, that just didn't seem to be the case...she just kept sleeping! We now have settled into going to bed between 8:15 and 8:30 and getting up a little after 8.
--Thursday, June 2nd-- (Okay...wasn't able to finish this the other night when I originally started...so, as you continue reading, Sydney has now been in school for five days!)
School has been fantastic! On a couple of occasions Sydney's teacher, Ms. Amber, has commented on Sydney being her "bestest" girl. The last time she said it, Brian made a remark about how she has to say that about all her kids. She laughed and said, "Uh, no...I don't." It was cute...and a little proud moment for Mommy and Daddy! :)
There are tears shed in the morning (on Sydney's part) but they are quickly dried up and she is off to a start. They usually go outside to play right around the time comes to pick her up from school, so it's always fun to park and just watch from a distance our girl just doing her own little thing.
She still hasn't totally warmed up to nap time at school...which is our fault probably. She is so used to sleeping in her little peapod (tent of sorts), having darkness and her river noise on in the background, that the idea of laying down on a mat, out in the open with other kids, was a pretty foreign concept to her. She usually comes home after her day and goes down for a two-hour nap, if not more! She is pooped, that's for sure!
Yesterday when we got home I was going to get out her lunch for her to snack on before she went down for a nap. We sat at our little coffee table and I unzipped her lunch box and all of a sudden Sydney was right there pulling out her cloth napkin (they are supposed to have a cloth napkin that they can unfold and use as a placemat at school), smoothing it out in front of her and then placing each lunch container on it in front of her. It was amazing! For being 20 months old and only in school for 4 days...it is just so cool.
So far, so good. We did decide to put her in an extra day, so now she is there Mon-Thursday. We miss her like crazy, but on the other hand, it is just neat to see her doing other things and learning how to do other things...socializing...etc. Pretty soon she will be immersed in the Japanese side of things and then we will have a whole new wave of excitement hit us. We went to the school's spring program/graduation last week and that just really pumped us up. All the kids were doing skits and songs in Japanese, as well as other things in English they had prepared. The graduation of the different levels in the school was neat to see... It's just exciting to be a part of something different and unique, and I think not only will Sydney gain so much from this, but both Brian and I will as well.
This private school also works closely with the Anchorage School District, and as a result all the kids graduating from 6th grade, then are automatically allowed into the Japanese Immersion program that picks up at Mears Middle School, and then on to Dimond High School. Normally you would have to live in the area zoned for those schools (or at least for the initial elementary school, Sand Lake), and you would have to interview for the program, etc. So, that is also a plus we will benefit from down the road.
First day of school pics: Not the greatest, but you have to remember, this was our FIRST EARLY day!...and boy was it early!
Sydney likes to "reorganize" our movies. She takes them out and stacks them up, then puts them back in her order. She particularly likes to go in after Daddy has reorganized them the way HE wants them.
"If you're happy and you know it, STOMP your feet." Sydney's sumo-style stomping.
These are taken out at Potter's Marsh Bird-Viewing Sanctuary.
Money-see, Monkey-do???
Sydney now will grab a pillow from the couch and sit at the table and read her books (out loud). As she is done reading each one, she stacks them up right next to her. Then she gets up and puts them all back on her book shelf. It's so dang cute!
When Sydney was born she got a hand-made rocking horse, Lemonade, that my Aunt Sherry made for her. It is super special and has sat in our living room ever since. Well, the other night we were getting ready for bed and I turn around and Sydney is on Lemonade! I guess she has now decided that she is big enough to get on her all by herself. So, the first couple pics are from her very first time getting on her all by herself...in her pajamas. :) She now gets on her every day and what is so funny is that Sydney will get on the horse, rock, then get off and push it to a different spot, get on and rock, get off, push to a different spot...and just go around in circles. She is a quirky girl to say the least.
Playing outside...chasing Tucker around.
Helping Mama get ready for dinner...(although Mama already had the potatoes on the stove!)
**Just a few Tidbits**
~Not quite sure when she started saying the word WATER, but it's been a few months now at least. Anyway, we have no idea why she says this, but for water she says "aygo" (pronounced: I-GO). It's very strange but totally funny.
~April, 2011. Another word she says that always makes us laugh is ELBOW. She points to her elbow and says "belbow." So stinkin' cute.
~April, 2011. I used to always take an empty paper towel roll, or an empty toilet paper roll, put it up to my lips and do the "royal trumpet" sound. Can you hear it in your head? Well, Sydney saw me switching out the toilet paper one day and grabbed the empty one out of the trash and put it up to her mouth (okay, that sounds bad...it wasn't as disgusting as it sounds!) and was doing a little royal fanfare herself. It was hilarious.
~April 29th. Sometime around the beginning of April, maybe March I guess, I put Sydney in time-out. She was just being a pill and was crying for no reason...etc. I told her it was time out and talked sternly, then proceeded on taking her into our bedroom and sitting her down on Tucker's bed, which seemed like a perfect spot at the time. Anyway, I had to go in three times to put her back on there until she stayed. I had made an off-hand remark to Brian along the lines of "Well, I guess we are doing time-outs now." We hadn't ever really discussed doing them or not doing them...it just seemed right at the time. A couple weeks later I put her in her second time-out and she actually stayed put. Well, on this day, April 29th, I was gone and Sydney just threw a tantrum when Brian told her "No" about something. He looked at her and told her to go sit in time-out. She went directly to the bedroom and sat down on Tucker's bed and started bawling. It's weird to say that it breaks your heart but at the same time makes you a little proud. Sad that she was crying and upset, but proud that without a second thought she knew right where to go and what to do...and she had only had two time-outs up to that point and they were weeks apart!
~May 19th. Sydney said "love u" to me (stephanie) completely umprompted today! She was leaning in to kiss me and said "mow mue," which is how she says love you. She has said this for awhile, but always after we tell her to say it. Now, whenever she is saying "nigh, night" she will add in a "mow mue". It just melts your heart!
~May 23rd. So when my mom was here this last visit, she had Sydney up on the bed one afternoon and would count "1-2...3!" and throw her into the pillows. Sydney would stand back up and start counting herself, although she started with "Fhree!..." and would then throw herself down. Well, the other day Sydney wasn't listening to me and I decided to give her a warning before the spanking so I automatically started counting (which I have never done before...I guess I must have been reverting back to my childhood! haha), ONE, TWO... As soon as I said ONE and saw a twitch of a smile come across her face, I realized I just made a big mistake. After TWO she jubilantly cried out FHREE! Thanks, Mom!
Okay, I think that is plenty for now... I better post this before several more days pass by and I will have a whole new set of pics and stories!
