In September of 2006, when Reagan was almost 2 years old, he started going to Treasure Patch Kids (TPK) which is a mother's day out program at a local church here in Round Rock. I cried when I dropped him off...for his whole FOUR HOURS of time away from me two days a week. He loved his teacher Ms. Patti, and he was excited to go back the next year.
In 2007 he entered Ms. Kelli's class at TPK, and he made great friends (Cash is his buddy). He learned a lot through that year, and I was excited about the next year because two of his life-long friends (yeah, I know he's only 3 at this point) were going to be going to TPK the next year.
Last year, 2008, was a big change. Reagan continued going to TPK and was in Ms. Brenda's class. Cash was still in his class, as well as Kennedy and Kendall...although I really think the boys played with the boys, and the girls played with the girls. On the three days that Reagan was not at TPK he was at preschool at Rainbow Station. He started preschool because I went back to work teaching in Cedar Park. Reagan has really learned many things from his teacher Ms. Aatif at Rainbow Station--he writes his name, draws pictures, traces and copies pictures, writes his friends' names, counts to 124 (random, I know), sings nursery rhymes, etc. And he liked going to Rainbow Station...most of the time.
Well, tomorrow starts a new school year for me. And for Reagan. Reagan has been fortunate enough to get into the ELE Friends program at the elementary school where I teach. This is an amazing program!! It is a literacy based program that pretty much follows the pre-K Leander ISD curriculum. The neat thing about ELE Friends is that it is made up of faculty member's kiddos--3-5 year olds--but they work with little kids from the district that have developmental disabilities. (ELE is the program for the district kids...the Friends are the faculty kids.) Not only will he be learning a fabulous pre-K program, but he will also be learning empathy, patience, tolerance, etc. Another great thing about it is that we'll be saving about $600/month in tuition!
He will be on my schedule. So if I have a staff development day, he still has school. He will be waking up early tomorrow for his first day. I'm looking forward to spending the mornings with him on the way to work, and I am thrilled to be in the same building with him all day! This is such a huge advantage that teacher-moms have. I imagine peeking in on him or seeing him at lunch, and I think that will just make my days even better.
All of this is a tad bitter-sweet. I'm sad that Reagan will no longer be going to TPK. I loved the Bible based curriculum, and he has made some wonderful friends. I was hoping that he'd "graduate" from there this year...
This is a huge change for our entire family. Since I have to be at work at 7:15, so does Reagan! He usually wakes up at 8am, and now he'll be getting up around 6am! I'm assuming this means that bedtime will be around 7pm...which is usually when David gets home from work. So David's schedule will also be changing.
Our new adventure begins tomorrow...
