First Day of "Gool"!!

Our big girl started Montessori! I still can't believe she's old enough to go to school! It's insane!!!

She goes Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 9-11:30 AM and the school is about 1.4 miles from our new house (which is nice).  The Friday before her first day Wes and I went with her for an hour or so to sit in the class and get comfortable. After a few minutes Wes and I stepped out and she did great! She was definitely very shy, but so sweet and loving every second!

I had massive anxiety before her first day. So many thoughts of "losing" my "baby", missing her while she's gone, never again will I have her 100% to myself all day, what if a mean kid bully's her? etc. I didn't even want to talk about it when people brought it up because I was so not looking forward to it. The thing that helped my most was that I knew that this was the best thing for her and that she'd LOVE it.

Her school is really high tech so you use an app on your phone to sign kids in and out.  Because of this, there is no parking and walking your child in. You turn on your app and line up your car in front of the school and all the teachers/aids come out and get your child from the car, wave bye bye, and they are off! As harsh as it sounds, it actually makes things a whole lot easier. No prolonged goodbyes, no crying. Just a hug and an I love you and off she goes with her teacher! I honestly thought I was going to lose it when she got out of the car to go into the school but I wanted to be as smiley as I could for her. I was able to do it. Wes was with me so that helped me a lot too. He was so calm, it made me calm too. She was a little hesitant for a second or so and then off she went! It both broke my heart and made my the proudest mommy all at the same time. She did great! She was very shy and basically stayed close to her teacher the whole time, but did well. She had a huge smile on her face when I picked her up and immediately opened her backpack and showed me the artwork she painted!

The other great benefit of her school is that every class room has webcams!!!! OMG how did parents survive this time without them??? (joking) But in all seriousness it helped me soooo much!!!! I'm able to watch her any time on my phone or my computer. It's really great for the grandparents too as Liv has at least 3-5 people watching her at any one time during her school day. hahaha It's truly amazing to be able to be a fly on the wall while she plays and learns.

She's been going for two weeks now and she still loves it! She's always asking to go and can't wait until the next time. She is still a little shy but comes home telling me about her friends so I know she's being more social (which is one of the biggest reasons I wanted her to start school).

We are so proud of our big girl and all she's doing in school. I feel like in two short weeks she's already increased her vocabulary, become less shy in public, and shows her goofy side to more people outside our family/friends. It's really been the best thing for her and I'm so glad we made the decision to start.