Growing Up

Sigh.

Ally is growing up. She is navigating Jr Kindergarten and dealing with the transistion to her new after-school program. She is making new friends, without any help and assistance from us. She is learning Spanish, she is growing, in more ways than just size.

I won't say its been a seamless transition to her new school. But it is going well. We're all still working on getting into the rhythm and swing of a new year and new routine.
I think the hardest thing for me about Ally's new school is not knowing. In preschool we are fortunate enough to get an email almost daily with written description and pictures of what they did that day. I also picked Ally up at the end of the day in her actual classroom with her teacher, so I had a chance to see things and speak with her teacher. This year Ally attends an afterschool program in a different room with different teachers and I pick her up there. Since Lauren, her babysitter takes her to school everyday we don't get to see first hand much of her class or activities during the day.

Its also tough because Ally has had a few tough moments with crying and missing me. We've talked about it and she says she just "misses me so much" so I talked about how missing me isn't fun and crying isn't fun and that maybe she could try not to miss me so much, and try hard not to cry. Because she has fun at school, and missing me takes away from the fun. It seems to be working.

But she is 4 (not quite 5) and its hard to tell how much she takes in. All of the teachers keep reminding us that its a HUGE transition this year. And I try to remember that it has only been two weeks. And of course, Ally does have fun. She does enjoy school and her afterschool program. She has made friends, and is already asking for a playdate with one.

I pick Ally up at school everyday, and we walk home together. Sometimes a friend will join us, but I secretly like best to walk with just Ally. She holds my hand, and we talk about her day. Usually I ask lots of questions and probe to learn more about her day. Sometimes she answers with information, sometimes she says "I forget or its so confusing or I don't remember" but every little kernel of information is fun to hear. And sometimes, she volunteers stuff. Like yesterday when she told me she "did observations" I asked of what and she told me she observed the fish and 2 turtles in the class room. She kept notes and drew pictures of what she observed! She told me it was her favorite part of the day. On Wednesday she proudly reported to Becky that she "did Math today" of course (math teacher) Becky was thrilled to hear that and they talked at dinner for a few minutes about what math Ally did.

Of course the highlight of one day was that there was a dead mouse on the playground at recess! Ally told us one of the teachers put it in the trash can.

There are lots of "specials" - each day they have at least one - gym, music, art, library, computer, gardening, music and Chinese. Plus they go outside 2 times a day, eat lunch and a snack, have rest time, math time, language arts and gathering time each day. Last night Becky and I went to an Open House at school and had a meeting with the teacher and other parents. It was fun to see her classroom again and meet some other parents and hear what their kids are saying about school.

Growing up is inevitable, and someday soon she won't hold my hand the whole walk home, and then it will be not at all. So for now I'll keep enjoying where we are at right now.

Because life with Ally is pretty spectacular.