1st (4th) Day of School

Anna started preschool this month.  The picture below is from her second week...we don't have one from her first day because she was not in a photo-friendly mood.  Just imagine her with the exact opposite demeanor than this picture and you'll know what she looked like on the first day.

Anyone who talked to Anna before school started would have heard one of these lines:

"School is bad."

"My teachers are bad."

"School is not fun."

"School.  Bad.  Bad.  Bad."

I blame us because we probably built it up so much we made her nervous.  She's always had separation anxiety and I do believe she was genuinely concerned that we would leave her there forever.

However, once she realized she was not being abandoned and she would in fact return home (after her whopping three hours away!), she opened up to the fun of school.  Now she eagerly regales me with tales from her school day, proudly shows off her art (what am I supposed to do with all of it?!?), sings new songs she's learned, and talks about her new friends.  And, she speaks of her teachers with excitement - no longer referring to them as "bad".

Her favorite activity so far is show-n-tell.  She thinks hard about what she wants to take and what she will tell the class about each item.  So far her choices have been her beloved bear Oatmeal (she told the class she uses him as a pillow) and a picture of Tope (according to Anna she said, "Tope is my cat and she talks to me.").  She already has her item for the next opportunity lined up - a shell she got from Papa Odie.

I'm so happy to see her blossoming and adapting to school.  It's a little early to say but I think she's going to enjoy begin a student as she gets older.  Case in point, the other day she came home and sighed, dropped her bag on the floor, and said, "I don't even have homework tonight!  Ugh."  It was one of those moments I wish I had on tape so that I could replay it for her when she gets older and is complaining about her homework.  (For the record, she does not have homework in preschool.  She's watched her friend Hayla complete 1st & 2nd grade homework the last two years and I think she expected to do the same thing.)