Pre-School, Now with More Bossiness

Last week J and B both started kindergarten (as chronicled here...and without an excruciating amount of detail, yes, they're doing very well, and yes, I conquered the car line--by making them bus kids. Ha!), and today their little sister, after driving her mother crazy for an entire week, started school, too. Pre-school, that is.

C is 17 months younger than her brother, which means that they're all close enough to never know life without exactly three musketeers, which means that C thinks she's actually a triplet, which means big sadz for her when her favorite people ever both left her to go to school. She'll start kindergarten next year, but meanwhile we knew C needed something to keep her occupied this school year. In a very big way.

Before I had children I told myself that pre-school was not a necessity. I am their best educator, so why give them to strangers earlier than necessary when I can take care of pre-k education at home? (Note: I am not a home schooler. So we always knew public school, of which we are huge proponents, would happen come kindergarten.) In true oh-you're-now-a-REAL-parent-so-please-eat-all-of-your-words-from-when-you-were-childless fashion, accompanied by Nelson haw-hawing in my ear, all of my expectations and plans changed with kids. B and J didn't need pre-school; a year ago they were immature and shy and terrified of other people, kids included. But their sister?

Oh, their sister. Let me tell you.

She knows no stranger. She knows no "no." She knows no moments of silence. She is the bossiest, most self-assured, most talkative person I have ever met, including every adult I have ever met, and she is 3 going on 25. She has spent all of her short life doing her best to keep up with her brothers, and now that they are in school, she finds herself adrift, in need of constant attention and play and interaction and socialization. We realized many, many months ago that pre-school was going to have to happen in order for her to flourish and also in order to not make me lose my ever-loving mind.

(I should mention that I am also bossy, self-assured, and talkative. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, and both apple and tree find themselves locked in fierce battles of wills quite often.)

So today started pre-school through our district in a wonderful program that meets every morning of the week. I would never have been able to send her brothers off every day. C is so excited for it that she's going to explode, and I can quite plainly see that this is the most perfect possible scenario for her pre-k education.

In back-to-school tradition, I took a few pictures of her waiting for the bus this morning. Forgive the squint; it was rather sunny, and she demanded she be on the porch, just like her brothers.

I think the shirt is appropriate, no? Also: fair warning for her teachers.

Spot the gremlin approaching from behind.

 

 

 

Do you spy her new backpack? C is obsessed with unicorns right now, and so I had to make a unicorn applique for it. I'm proud of that part; it was free-hand. Forgive the creepy, demented eyeball. She demanded (she often demands) it have an eyeball, and this is the best I could manage.

 

 



She comes home in a few minutes and I can't wait to hear what new worlds and people she has conquered in her short time away.

Also, today I went grocery shopping with ONLY ONE CHILD and it took just one hour.

Amazing.