Saying goodbye to preschool

I can hardly believe Aaron is officially done with preschool! Last week he had his last day, and I snapped a picture of him with his beloved teacher, Mrs. Christy. He is going to miss her so much! He told me Mrs. Christy is also a kindergarden teacher, and was kind of upset when I told him she is not. :-(

He had a great year in preschool, and made many great memories. From firetruck day, to the Trike-a-thon, to the petting zoo, it was a fun-filled year. He loved learning Spanish with Mrs. Shelley and going to computer class on Tuesdays. He especially loved show-and-tell, and would always hide his item from Mrs. Christy by putting it in his pocket or in his lunchbox until it was time for show-and-tell.



Next time I take him to school, it will be at a big, new, scary elementary school where he will stay ALL DAY and I will have no idea what he's doing all day! Claire, Hannah, and I won't know what to do with ourselves.

Okay, it won't be that bad, but I will do some crying for sure! And after the first week or so I know they won't let us walk them all the way to their classrooms, so I'll just be dropping him off at the curb. (I can't even imagine how hard this would be if he was going to be a bus rider! Thank goodness we live close to the school!) When I pick him up in the afternoons, I'll ask him what he did that day, and I'll probably get "Nothing" or "Played".

He is very ready for kindergarten, though. He is such a smart boy, and even though he has a summer birthday, I don't think it'd be good to hold him back. He's learning to read, and loves to sit with me and read level 1 books. He's a math whiz, as I've pointed out before. He's also going to love science-related stuff--he loves to inspect things and figure out how stuff works.

I went to talk to the guidance counselor at the elementary school a few weeks ago to discuss my concerns about what teacher he gets, and about whether he was completely ready socially and physically. He still has trouble with handwriting and he hates coloring. It's a struggle to get him to hold his pencil (and his fork for that matter!) correctly. I'm told he just needs to do more to sharpen his fine motor skills, and this is very common for boys. I made sure the counselor knows where he stands academically, and I can only hope she will put him with a teacher who is especially good with gifted students who get easily bored and squirmy if work is not challenging enough. (And in Aaron's case, if the work seems overwhelming, like too much writing or coloring on one page, he just won't do it at all.)

I know God knows what teacher he needs, and he will thrive in his new environment. I'm just so scared to let my baby go!