First Day

Today was M's first day at preschool. We went to an open house last night and met her teachers and saw her classroom. I wasn't sure I was ready, but she seemed excited. We had her backpack all packed and ready to go and this morning she had her shoes and backpack on for about 45 minutes before she had to leave. She was grinning ear-to-ear for her "first day of school" picture, but the minute Daddy said it was time to leave, she grabbed me and wouldn't let go. She had been ready and rarin' to go for 45 minutes, but now was reluctant (no real tears, though). I kissed her hand and put it to her cheek (anyone familiar with "The Kissing Hand"?), then she kissed mine and I put it to my cheek. Ted carried her to the car and drove her to school, which made things easier on me. We'll see how tomorrow goes when I drop her off!

Since we homeschool, we haven't taken "first day" pictures before. I'm sure other homeschoolers do this, but it's never really occurred to me before. So since we were taking one of M, we took pictures of the other girls as well (even though H has already started some of her first grade curriculum). Even F was getting in on the action, sporting a backpack!

It is hard for me to send my three-year-old off to preschool 4 days a week when my older girls are still at home. But M has a profound speech delay, and her preschool is taught by speech therapists who can give her more than I can to help her improve her speech. I wish I had the training (I think it would be cool to be a speech therapist!), but I don't, so I know this will be good for her. Her teachers are both very nice and her class is small (under 10 kids so far!), so that's nice.

How did everyone else's back-to-school days go? Any tears? Any cheers? :-)