Starting School

So last week our three little ones started school for the year.  For the past year and a half, Tracey has attended the same school two mornings per week, but this year, all three are attending two full days per week.  Those two days are the days that I work outside the home.

It was all I could do to get Tracey to turn around for this picture... was so excited to jump in to the activity with her friends on her first day of preschool this year.

Tracey is in the preschool class with a new teacher, and Howard and Caroline are in two separate toddler classes.  They still see each other at recess and naptime, but they are in different classes all morning and for lunchtime.

Howard is still figuring things out every day at drop-off...

And Caroline jumps right into her work every day before I even say goodbye.

I will confess, I thought Caroline would have the hardest time with being in a class by herself, but all the kids seem to be adjusting really well.  If anything, Howard seems to have the hardest time at drop-off thus far.

Tracey just seems so grown-up this fall.  She switched to the preschool room last February after she turned 3, and it was a hard transition for her.  By the end of the year, she has figured out the expectations in the preschool classroom, but she still talked about her toddler teachers and talked about wishing she was still in their class.  Now, Howard is in her old classroom, but she is really loving her time in preschool.

I took this picture a week before they actually started school when we went to meet their teachers, just because I didn't know how a picture on the first day of school would go.  Well, I'm glad this was our trial run picture because, as you can see, Caroline was not thrilled to be a part of things.

Fortunatley, a week later for the actual first day of school... she was still definitely the most hesitant of the three, but there were no tears for the real first day of school picture.

 

I just can't believe how grown up our three little ones are, and I know that realization is only going to grow when our new baby arrives.