Julia's Pre-School Anticipation.

For the past couple of years, Julia has been accompanying me as I've dropped David off at his pre-school. Although she's enjoyed her time alone with me, she's become increasingly eager to go to school as well. Next week it will be her turn to enter "formal" schooling. Will her first day meet with her fun-filled expectations, or will the realization that she's without Mommy or Daddy for the first time result in tears?

In anticipation of going to school, she's been asking me for months if it's "September already." To give her an idea of how long it was until the start of school, I decided to make a counting-down-to-school art project with her, so she could count the number of days left to her first day of school.

She traced and cut a few shapes out of a contraction paper which once glued became a school.

She matched the foam letters to the ones I wrote on a paper to spell out "Green House" (the name of her school) and glued them to the school.

We attached 9 rings to the bottom of the school. Each morning she cuts one circle and counts the number of rings left, thus the number of days left to her first day of school.

About a week before her school starts, we attended an orientation to get her familiarized with her new teachers and some of her classmates. The best part of attending "The Green House" is that she'll be attending with her best friend, Mina, who is returning there for a second year.

Mina was accompanied by her brother, Jordan, who's is not only going to be attending this school for a third year, but also skipping an entire preschool year to go straight to kindergarten. Hopefully, some of the credit goes to the school (so I won't feel so bad shelling out so much for tuition. )

Julia enjoyed meeting her teachers and her classmates, but she seemed more taken by the secretary who was very kind and patient, even when Julia kept asking her to draw butterflies while the she was in a middle of collecting money.

We read some stories together and I'm in love with their reading corner. (I wonder where they got these small couches!)

Julia stumbled upon a snack area where she grabbed 2 cookies and some juice. After that it was time to play in a school's playground. I'm sure it's going to be her favorite school spot.

Julia enjoyed her visit so much. On the way back, when a director asked her what was her favorite part, she replied "a cookie". It's so her.