Preschool Program

Katelee had her last day of preschool this year, complete with a darling program.

I went to the program expecting to get in some laughs. Preschoolers are pretty hilarious, after all. And there were plenty of laughs! What I did not expect were the tears. My baby is growing up!

Katelee is in the blue and green dress.

Both the morning and afternoon preschool classes performed the program together, which meant about 30 preschoolers on the stage at once! They sang 6 songs with movements:

Inky Dinky Doo

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Did You Ever See a Fish?

Way Up in the Sky

Climb Aboard the Spaceship

You are my Sunshine

I cried during You are my Sunshine when their teacher announced that this song was for the mom's. It was adorable. They all put on sunglasses to sing it. :)

Then they did two dances:

Chicken Dance (Katelee ROCKS at this, by the way!)

Dance with Me

Then they had the 'crossing over the bridge.' Ms. Judy said a few words about each student, had them answer a question, and they walked across a little bridge to represent they were moving on in the world.

Ms. Judy said that Katelee was definitely ready for kindergarten, that she was 'very accomplished,' and that they should 'put her on staff,' because she could probably teach the kindergarten class. Then she asked Katelee what she wanted to be when she grew up. Katelee said, "A firefighter!" Later she told me, "I was going to say a ballet dancer, but then I changed my mind!" :)

I did not get very good pictures. My video is a bit better, so I'll try to post a bit of that sometime soon.

After the program we enjoyed juice boxes and cake in the foyer. Yum!

Katelee with a couple of her best friends from school: Jayden and Paulo.

Katelee and Ms. Alice

Katelee and Ms. Helen

Katelee and her AMAZING teacher, Ms. Judy

I did it!

Last year, when my parents were staying at my house during and after my dad's surgery, we discussed preschool. I was teaching Katelee and home with "mommy school." My dad suggested we look into preschool programs for lower income families, so I googled it. About a year ago this time, we got news that Katelee had been accepted into this preschool program. It is done through the district and is very expensive. However, we were blessed to qualify for free tuition because of our lower income right now. We were so excited!

And then I got all the information and learned about how many hours a week the preschool was. 4 days a week! 3 hours a day! It seemed like too much to me. I was hoping for 2 or maybe 3 days a week, like most preschools. Katelee is my only child. I didn't see a need for her to be gone from home so much. I discussed it with Gerald. He thought she should take advantage of the opportunity to go. I thought we should say 'no thanks' and keep teaching her at home.

After more thought and prayer, we decided to just 'try it out.' If Katelee didn't want to go to school one day, or ever again, at any point, I was going to keep her home.

So, we started the year. And we all fell in love! We fell in love with Katelee's amazing teacher, Ms. Judy, who was born to teach preschool, and her fabulous staff. We fell in love with all the friends Katelee made through school. We loved the exciting opportunities and experiences Katelee was having each day. In short, it was exactly what Katelee needed in her life this past year. It has been such a blessing to her and to our family. And she never once asked to stay home! In fact, she often cried on the days that there were no school - can I just say the 2 weeks of spring break were really, REALLY long and hard for Katelee?!

I'll be forever thankful for this blessing in our lives. Katelee is excited for summer and even more excited for kindergarten in the fall! She has met her kindergarten teacher and seen her classroom and playground, and now there is no looking back! ;)