Abbie’s first days of pre-K

Abbie started at the Montessori school last week.  We went in Monday just for a quick meeting with her teachers and she wanted to stay all day and was sad when we had to leave.  Thursday and Friday she went 8am-10am, and again, she wasn’t at all ready to leave when I went to pick her up.  She is just SO social and she really thrives in group settings, especially ones where she has constant stimulation.  Honestly, I just don’t have that kind of energy or ambition to keep her that entertained all hours of the day and she is TERRIBLE at keeping herself entertained.  The Montessori schools really try to foster a child’s independence and teach them how to love learning, and I’m really hoping that this year she will learn how to be more independent with entertaining herself.  In other ways, Abbie is very independent.  She will pick out her own clothes and get herself completely dressed.  She gets herself some of her own drinks and snacks.  She goes to the bathroom by herself sometimes in public.  She loves to help and to do grown up things, but if she’s not helping with something, she wants you to entertain her ALL the time.  Play with her, turn on shows for her, let her do whatever you’re doing – it can be exhausting.  So I think I might be just as excited for her to be going to school full time as she is.

Two weeks ago we got a call from her school that a full time position had opened so after discussing it, Mark and I decided to put her in the Montessori school from 8am – 3pm Monday through Friday.  Originally she was signed up for 12pm-3pm Mon-Fri, but since they had the full time opening, we bumped her up.  I have no doubt that she’ll be able to handle full days since she doesn’t nap anymore anyway and she LOVES school.  I think she’ll get a lot of out it, so I’m excited for her.  But the school is $650/month for full time!!!  YIKES!  However, public schools around here are $600/month for full time pre-K also, so we’re really only paying $50/month more for the Montessori school.  Next year will be the tough one since public Kindergarten is free.  I can’t wait to see how she learns and grows during this next year!