Shhhhhh.

Today is good. Pito is asleep in her new big-girl bunkbed which she now shares with Plava in their cute little room full of furniture of different colours, clothes stuffed messily into drawers, toys piled on shelves, and hair clips, elastics, and the odd used tissue littering the floor. Aaaah, children's rooms. :)
Plava, who is changing rapidly before our eyes, is at her new preschool. You may be surprised to hear me say that, since previously I had talked about doing a little homeschoolish kind of thing with her, since her preschool from last year closed, but there we were at the lunch table one day, me and my two little girls, and Plava said, quite out of the blue, "I wish I was going to preschool."

"You do?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I miss going to preschool."

Now, I wasn't absolutely surprised. Ryan had been saying this for the past week or so, that he thought she was missing going to preschool, but I just kept remembering how hard the entire year was last year, with her never wanting me to leave, often crying, and having such a hard time participating in anything when she was there. It was a huge amount of pressure on her, AND ME, and it became even clearer that that was the case this summer when she seemed to just relax and come out of her shell at a pace faster than we had seen all year. It was as if the stress of preschool twice a week was gone and she could just emerge on her own terms.

In considering what to do this fall, I just felt exhausted with the idea of going through another year of a new place, going through the emotions of having to leave her and seeing her cry, and this time it would be leaving her with people I didn't even know!! (I knew her teachers previous to her going to preschool last year.) Then imagining having to start all over again in Kindergarten...it was too much for me to handle at the time, especially with everything else I had on my plate, so I decided we'd take it easy and do the "teach your kid to read" thing.

But on that day, when Plava said that she missed it, I decided to try calling a preschool in our neighbourhood. I had passed it a handful of times, but had always assumed that like many of the others around, it would be full and with a long waitlist. I also didn't know anything about it. It was in a house, and you never know what that will be like.

But I called, and spoke for a long time with the teacher, and found out that there were 2 spots available, one of which would likely be taken by the end of the day. I talked to Ryan and decided to take the girls in the next day to visit the place, check it out, see the teachers, and see how it felt.

It was amazing. I have such respect for these women who run the place. Much like last year, they are warm and caring, understanding of each child's individual and different needs, and are so sensitive to the fact that some of the kids are just plain scared. I watched a circle-time and was so impressed with their loving demeanor. We walked outside and took a look at the back yard, and WOW, it was amazing. What a dreamland play area for the kids!! A "secret garden", a bike track, loads of toys. It was great.

But the thing that sold me on the place was when Plava reached up and pulled me down to her level, then quietly whispered into my ear, "Mama, can I go play?"

That was it. She wanted to leave my side and go play. WOW. So, she did. She played with some playdough at a little table, and so did Pito, right beside her. And when it was time to go, she didn't want to. (Imagine!) And the next day was her first day!!!

She's doing so well, and it's SO nice to know that she loves it! She comes home every time telling me all about what she did and how much fun she had and what she told her teachers and what songs they sang and.....etc etc. It's wonderful!

So now I'm left with some very quiet afternoons, because Preschool is right at Pito's nap time, here I sit and blog!! Actually, I made a sling for a friend first, and cut out another one for another friend, but then I sat down at the computer. :)

We haven't dropped the reading lessons either. They're actually going really well, and both Plava and I love them. I can't say she hasn't been rather squirmy and unfocussed on a few occasions, but she loves it still, so I can't complain! We're already up to the letter Q (names and sounds of letters) and I'm constantly amazed at a young child's ability to absorb material. She struggles to remember things only for a day or two, then it's set in stone in her memory. Crazy! I wish my brain worked like that!

The next thing we're going to do is go to the library and get some books out about stars and the solar system, and constellations. She's so intrigued and amazed by seeing stars out in the night sky lately (perhaps because she went to bed before they came out for the last many months!) and I'm going to run with it. I love this kind of stuff!! Woo hoo!!

Anyway, I'm thankful for some moments of peace in my life at the moment. Peace is good. Quiet is good. Very very good.