The Last Day of Pre-Pre-School

Lily's last day of school was on Wednesday and they had a school picnic to celebrate on Friday. I thought that I would post a few pictures of her first year in school. There are some cute first-day pictures of her but they're stuck on the Mac and I'm not messing with that thing just to get those pictures.

I should note that while it is a school, Our World Montessori is basically a pre-school. And since she won't even start kindergarten until Fall 2009, we called this past year her pre-pre-school year. We absolutely love Our World and Jamison will be joining her this coming fall. She will be moving up to another age group and Jamison will be in the classroom that she was in this year. His teachers will be her teachers from this past year, Michelle, Manar, and Maliha.

Almost every day when we asked her what she did at school she said that she played on the trampoline. They went outside whenever it wasn't raining/snowing or below 40*. Since most days of the school year it is below 40*, they have a lot of indoor physical activities like the trampoline, slide, and balance beam.

When she turned 3 in December, she had a small celebration in school. They have a ceremony where the birthday child holds a globe and walks around an inflatable sun as many times as old the child is. It's an honor for each child to do this and it helps teach them about time passing. we brought the typical cupcakes to share. Her teacher, Michelle, is in the background.

Jamison was not allowed any cupcakes despite the birthday-girls wishes.

One day they had the fireman and a fire truck at the school talk about fire safety and such. She was allowed in the truck (yes, I was slightly jealous). One of her classmates dad was the firefighter and he dressed in all the gear and each kid knocked on his helmet. Lily and I are in the front row at the far right.

Michelle has the kids ready for circle time. It took Lily almost half the year to join the group. Neither Michelle nor I have any idea why she didn't want to participate since she sang the songs and looked like she wanted to participate. Eventually she joined the group in Dec/Jan and participated.

She did similar things like this for the Spring Tea in which she was supposed to stand with her class and sing some songs. Instead, she just stood there and pouted. We've deduced that she either doesn't like to perform in public (hard to imagine) or the whole experience is a little too overwhelming for her (most likely).

Another time she did this was when my cousin, Lynn, mailed some princess dresses for Lily to play with. To say Lily loves princesses would be an understatement. She is a new princess everyday. Yet when the dresses arrived she sobbed and wailed. And then wore them constantly. It's almost as if she is so excited and in love with the occasion that it just overwhelms her and she shuts down. (see example below: School Picnic Performance)

Here she is doing her part in helping make the snack - a smoothie.

We took the picture of Lily and Michelle on the last day of school. Michelle is a great teacher and we are so glad that Jamison will be in her class next fall. We're on the same page on a lot of things so it was very easy for us to talk about Lily and our children. Her son, Will, was one of the children that Lily played with in class.

School Picnic Performance. Lily is in the center in the orange dress and sunglasses. As they are about to begin you can see how she starts to shut down....eventually she came to stand by me and she watched the school perform. The whole school is below, not just her class.

What is great about this pictures, is not just Lily's disinterest, but Michelle's face. She's on the far right laughing because she knows exactly what Lily is doing. I'm just glad I had fancy pants on Lily so no one saw her Tinkerbell panties.

Lily and Grace on the slide. Grace is another classmate that Lily bonded with. Hopefully they will be taking swimming lessons together this summer.

At the picnic, Jamison became an attraction. Lily and her friends surrounded him and talked baby-talk to him and then laughed hysterically at each other for being so clever.

Enrolling Lily in Montessori was the best idea and I am so glad that we ran across this school. It was beautiful to watch her mind expand. We are so excited about the possibilities next year will bring for her and Jamie.