First Day Frenzy

Today was our first day back. I think no matter how much you plan and how many hours your put into making everything perfect -- it never will be. I mean... everyones' idea of a perfect day is different , right ? Some days perfect is everyone got home and no one was bleeding. Some days, it is a child that has a hard time making friends breaking a barrier and bonding with a another child. Somedays it is a DING moment as a teacher when you realize something new about yourself. Today was a perfect day too. We made it. We made it .....

I have been SO excited about starting back to school. You will hear me say this 1000 times this year , but I LOVE MY JOB! I have been working on all the little details and planning our day. I get up at 5 am to walk and go to the gym. Yesterday I did and I was SO pumped about getting into routine. This morning at SEVEN AM Randy says " OH MY DEBBIE - IT's 7 !" Overslept on the first day of school, really ? Agh......... Anyway, thankfully, I had put the awesome peach french toast casserole together last night to pop in the oven this morning. ( Awesome as in.... only two children ate it. Hmm... tomorrow we will try something more simple. ) We made sure everything was ready and opened the door on time. As we met the kids outside today, we didnt have one crier. There was one that thought about it, but decided against it. ( Thank you little guy! ) Tomorrow might be different. WHY? You ask.. today should have been the hard one ? The first day they are excited about new friends and new stuff ! Tomorrow, we are old news and they realize, " hey wait.... you mean we will do this EVERYDAY?" So, please remember to keep your goodbyes quick and I promise to hug , hold and console anyone that has a hard time

( Oh yeah! KUDOS on the moms that met at Cafe on Broadway for breakfast this morning. KLEENEX AND COFFEE is what we called it ! Was kleenex needed ? If you took pictures, please text them to me and I will get them on the blog tomorrow. )

Today was spent talking a lot about " what we do " and yes... " what we don't do." All in all, I think it was a good day. I mean, some of these kiddos have never been anywhere like our type of setting so we cant expect them to come in and just KNOW what to d0. We did have two extra hands helping us today ( Beth and Jodie) and I honestly don't know what we would have done without them.

We did initial art today. Kids are really big on knowing the first letter of their name. Many times it is the first letter they can pick out. This year I have 5 K's and 4 M's. This should be interesting.

We played outside twice. Tomorrow we may have to rearrange our time out a little . After lunch was pretty hot today. The kids did love the new stuff out there though.

I think it is important to make a room pretty for the children as well as functional and a learning environment. These shelves hold pictures from home. Parents, if you havent brought in yours , please do so. I have frames here if you need them.

Also, isn't our tree BEAUTIFUL! Julie , Scarlett's mommy painted the tree for us and today we put our fingerprints on it. I was in a awe . Look how much detail is on there - the heart in the middle ... wow. I want to do one each year and save as a keep sake . I already had some moms ask would Julie do more and I approached her about it. She is going to come up with a price. So, if you think you might want one for a family tree or a present for grandma etc.... I'll let you know soon how much it will cost you !

It made my day to see the kids make friends !

I can't wait to do it again tomorrow ! ( I will be uploading TONS of pictures on Facebook.. so what for them and tag yourself if you would like. )