First day of Pre-K

At seven am sharp my four year old boy bounded into my room wanting to know if his shorts were on backwards.  As I helped him get dressed he told me all about the dream he had, "I dreamed that I woke up and put my clothes on.  Then I waved good-bye to all my friends (my friends were in my room).  Then I left for school.  That was it."  He was so excited he dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready to leave 30 minutes before we could and 45 minutes before we had to.

This one is a little fuzzy, but captures the mood of the morning!

First day of school!!

"This is how you make 11."

Asher needed to check out the toys too!

Ethan playing at one of his classroom tables.

Asher thinks, "Hey man, I'm ready for this place too!"

For more pictures of this morning you can head on over to SmugMug.

A look back through the years.

With Ethan starting school this week I thought it would be fun to take a look back:

On July 2, 2007 Ethan (at 41 weeks) decided to make a dramatic entrance into the world.  He spent the next week in the NICU before coming home as a healthy baby boy!

He took his first trip to the Smokies later that same year (3 months).

Ethan loves his Auntie!(6 months)

In April, we went on a hike with the Boudreauxs.  

Apparently Asher did not invent the "scrunchy nose face". (9 months)

Sitting with Pop while he plays on the Wii.  (16 mon)

Eating gumbo like a true Cajun should! (18 mon)

 Celebrating Mother's Day (20 mon)

Celebrating Jonathan's birthday (2 years)

Bed head! (2.5)

So tall! (2.75)

While Mommy took care of baby Asher, Ethan took care of baby Martin. (almost 3)

Ethan loved playing at Little Gym this past year (3.3)

And no matter how much he likes to read or love on his brother...

....he is ALL boy! (3.5)

He is also our budding photographer!

I'm sure on Monday I'll have some great "First day of school" pictures!

School!!

Lots of you have asked about where Ethan is going to school next year.  I posted a little bit last year about our dilemma of having a summer birthday boy.  We have been encouraged by friends and educational professionals to "red shirt" him.  We however feel like he will be ready to start Kindergarten next year.  To make sure that he is we wanted to enroll him in a pre-K program that was academic.  That way he will have a foundation for going to Kindergarten next year and we will also have the opinion of a professional teacher who sees his behavior in the classroom.

River's Edge is the school that we have chosen to send him to next year.  It is a Christian Co-op that actually offers classes all the way through high school.  We don't know how long Ethan will attend RECA, we plan on just taking it year by year.  In this co-op model the teacher prepares five days worth of lesson plans and teaches three of them (Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).  On the other two days of the week the "teaching parent" (me) is expected to complete the rest of the plans with their children.  Because I do not feel I have experience in choosing a home school curriculum or any experience in early childhood education I love this model!! 

Today we went to Ethan's classroom and met his teacher.  One of the things that "sold" us on RECA was the night Philip and I went to a parent interest meeting.  We met Ethan's teacher after the meeting and she mentioned that she will be teaching the children French!!  We couldn't have been more excited!

As I look forward to beginning Ethan's educational journey I am a little bit surprised that his early childhood years are truly over.  I told Philip last night, "When I look at him I see more and more of the boy he will become and less and less of the baby that he was."  I'm not the kind of mom that gets upset about her child growing up, after all that is what they are suppose to do!  But I have been surprised at how this new season of life has made me look back at how fast time has gone by.