first morning of preschool for two Hedenberg girls

My little baby had a great first day of preschool today. She woke up very excited to leave and had definite ideas about what she wanted to wear. I had picked out a new dress for her and ironed it last night in anticipation of her first day, but she was adamant that she wear this heart dress that Emmy gave her.  I will say, she chose very well. It was a happy dress for a happy occasion and it matched her very favorite yellow shoes. I about melted when the director commented to her, "Kate! I love your pretty dress!" Katie didn't miss a beat before saying, "Thank you. It was my Emmy's first but she gave it to me." Katie doesn't often volunteer much information when spoken to by someone she doesn't know well, so I guess she was pretty happy about the dress to verbally share so much about it. :)

Once we began our walk to school. she was practically skipping down the sidewalk, just so very excited to go. As we approached the building, her steps got a little slower and at one point she asked me (in statement form, as if reassuring herself more than asking a question) "You'll come back, right?" I assured her that I would most definitely come back as soon as she was done playing for the morning. She perked up almost immediately and that was the end of any brief hesitation on her part.

We got to her classroom and she was greeted by her teachers. She remembered how to move her attendance card (though it was placed a little high for her and she could not do it independently… it was really cute to see her on her tip toes trying to reach it.) and remembered where to hang her school bag. There was yellow Play-doh waiting on the tables for the kids to enjoy as they settled in. I could NOT have handpicked a better first activity of her school career than yellow Play-doh! I gave her a very quick kiss and hug, told her I would be back soon, and exited the room. It was painless. For both of us. Relief.

I then experienced my first morning of working outside of the home in a very long time. I could say that it was great, but the honest share is that it was not the most challenging or busy three hours of my life. I was given my schedule to follow and it had chunks of time allotted to specific tasks that did not require quite so much time.  For example, there were fifteen minutes where my only assigned task was to fill six water pitchers for the upstairs classrooms for snack. Truthfully, I am a mom of four and multi-tasker by necessity, so in fifteen minutes, I could fill water pitchers…. while reading a book to a child … while helping with another child with homework…. while getting dinner started. There might even be time in there to switch a load of laundry too.

There were forty minutes where my scheduled task is to make copies and assist with lesson prep. There was nothing that needed done today. Nothing. I really hope this was just a first day of school fluke thing.

If I have no lesson prep tasks, I was told to just assist wherever needed in either of the upstairs classrooms. The problem with this is that during this chunk of lesson prep time for me, the two classrooms I am assigned to are having circle time. One teacher leads the lesson while the other assists with whatever comes up (a child needing to use the restroom, someone not paying attention, etc.) Unlike if it was center time or free choice time, there was not really an opportunity for me to interact with the kids or help out.

There is a twenty minute chunk of time where I go to the Mom's Morning Out nursery to relieve each of the teachers for a ten minute break. This was my busiest and fastest time of the morning. They were a little swamped and appreciated the help. They had not swept up the Cheerios from snack yet, or disinfected the high chairs after snack. There was a crying baby who needed comforted and a diaper to change. The twenty minutes passed in an instant. I appreciated the chance to be busy.

There are three back to back thirty- minute blocks of each morning where my job is to supervise the playground. This time passed at a snail's pace. The downstairs teacher's aide warned me to always bring a hat or sunscreen on sunny days and to invest in a really warm coat for this winter. I don't think this will be my favorite part of my job.

Once the morning was over, I excitedly hurried to Katie's classroom to pick her up. She greeted me with a huge smile and even more huge hug. Her teacher came over and shared what a "happy morning" Katie had had. (Also, I will add here… I had stolen peeks inside of the classroom a couple of times as I was walking from one part of the building to another and already knew that she was enjoying herself. I also ran into one of her teachers in the school office about halfway through the morning and had been given a great report.) We headed home for lunch and she was FULL of stories and songs about her morning.

So not to complain, but just to share…. the morning was not what I pictured. Well, truthfully, I hadn't known what to picture, so I hadn't pictured much, but this morning was definitely not what I pictured for my first morning back to teaching. I was telling a good friend at elementary school pick up about this and her advice was to just enjoy it. She said, "Just appreciate that while you are there, you don't have to multi-task. Just  do what they need you to do and make it the easiest part of your day." While I appreciated the advice, I would rather find a way to feel useful and to feel like the three mornings of my week that I spend there are worth it, and that since the pay pretty much stinks, I am at least finding the experience rewarding or feel like I am getting my foot back in the door of the teaching world.

So of the two Hedenberg girls who headed to preschool this morning, one had a really great time. :)