Brady's Field Trip to Plymouth Orchards

This is Brady's second year in the preschool program that is part of the school district in which we live.  It's a large program that has several classrooms for 3 year olds and 4 year olds in several elementary schools (there are 16 this year and will be downsized to 13 next year), offering varying days and times.  Every year, all of the preschool classes take turns going to Plymouth Orchards for a fall field trip and this is Brady's second year taking this field trip.  He was beyond excited to go this year.

 We got on the tractor and they took us to the apple trees first where Brady picked two apples, one for each of us.

 Pumpkins next!  He picked two big ones compared to some others we saw.

Since it was his second year doing this field trip, I thought I'd compare some pics.  He's grown a lot in the last year!

Brady's First Day of 4 Year Old Preschool

Brady's actual first day was a week ago, but we had to get a new computer, so I've put the date that corresponds with his actual first day on this post.  About a week after school let out in June, Brady started asking when it was time to go back.  Summer is our busiest time and we probably spent a combined 5 weeks at home between May and September, but I guess we weren't busy enough for him not to miss school.  I always loved school (hence why my chosen profession before children was teaching), so I can only hope that his love of learning continues.  

Not many people know, but Brady was officially diagnosed with ADHD right after the school year ended.  At that point he was only able to recognize half of his letters.  With kids expected to be reading books by kindergarten, I became very worried that he was falling behind.  We made it our mission this summer to get all of his letters down before school and we accomplished that goal!  It takes a lot of redirection to get him to focus so learning new things will be a challenge, but it helps that I have my teaching background and we can do lots of work at home to keep him on track for kindergarten next year.

He went to the district sponsored preschool last year twice a week in the mornings.  My intention was to place him three mornings per week for the 4 year old preschool, but they eliminated that option for mornings and only offered four day or five day mornings.  We registered him for the four day before he was diagnosed and are now very glad that we did.  He needs the extra time and it will get him ready for full day kindergarten next fall.  This also gives me more time alone with Izzie, either for activities or quality time.

Traditional first day doughnuts!

Izzie loves doughnuts too so she benefits from Brady going back to school in many ways. 

Backpack on and ready to go!

What a difference a year makes!

Settling right in! 

Izzie was super excited as well. 

We were afraid she was going to throw a fit when it was time to leave, but she left and said bye to Brady.  At the end of the day when we went to pick him up, she ran to hug him.  He's completed a full week now and he's still excited as he was the first day.  Here's to a great year!

Brady's Field Trip to Plymouth Orchards

Brady's first ever school field trip was to the apple orchard!  Since they're still so young, parents have to accompany their child on field trips and siblings have to stay home.  Brady was talking about going to the orchard for days before it was actually time to go.  When we got there, some of his friends said hi to him, but he was acting shy with me around.  One of the other moms mentioned that their little boy plays with Brady every day and we decided to hang out with them on the field trip.  His little buddy's name is Xander and he's pictured to the right of Brady above.

The kids got a little lesson on pollination before we headed out to the orchard.

Brady and Xander hanging out on the wagon ride.

Picking apples.

He made sure that I noticed it was a Ford tractor.  He's all about naming every make of cars.

Next stop - pumpkin picking!

Snack time!  Yummy donuts and apple cider.

The elusive Brady worm.

Brady is forever pretending to be a cat at home, so this was perfect for him.

I got into the fun as well.

Time for animals.

Checking out the tractor.

Brady's First Day of Preschool!

After much anticipation and excitement for this day (by both parties), Brady is officially a preschooler!  It's hard to believe how fast the last three and a half years went by and it makes us think that before we blink, Izzie will be doing this too.  Brady has loved going to the gym daycare since he was 15 months old, so we knew he'd have no problems being there without us.  He loves all transportation, and the bus stop is across the street from our house, so he has spent the last year watching it and getting excited about going to school.  Unfortunately, he won't be able to ride the bus until kindergarten, but he still has a lot of fun spotting them everywhere we go.

After some research, I decided to place him in the district's preschool program instead of choosing a private option.  Our district is 50th in the state (out of 600 districts), and the curriculum was one that I supported having been a former Pre-K teacher myself.  I registered him for the two day per week option and we ended up getting our first choice of days and schools (there are several day options offered at different elementary schools in the district).  We got paperwork a few weeks ago that gave us the schedule of days there wouldn't be school and also a letter about a day where we are to bring our child to meet the teacher.  We weren't allowed to bring siblings, so Bethany watched Izzie and off we went!

 Half the class was scheduled to meet the teacher at a time, so there were only six of the total thirteen children there.

They have a main teacher and an assistant teacher, which is very standard to meet adult to child ratios.  His main teacher is Mrs. Soden and the assistant is Mrs. N.  They sat the kids down to talk about areas of the room and things they'd do each day.  They read them a story about a mouse's first day of school.  My main worry in Brady going to school was that he wouldn't be able to sit still as it seems he always has ants in his pants.  I was shocked observing the story time that he sat still.  On the other hand, he had something to say about every single page, which is normal at this age, but he did it much more than the other children.

After the story, they let the kids explore the different areas of the room.  Brady was hanging with the girls for a while in the housekeeping area.

But then he found the cars and airplanes and he was a goner.

In the few days between the teacher meet and the first day of school we had some things to get so Brady would be ready.  He needed a backpack and was very excited about getting one.  I let him pick one out at the store and he chose a Transformer backpack featuring Bumblebee.  This made Andy very proud as he loves his Camaro.  Once he reaches kindergarten, I'll order backpacks from Lands End like I had a kid because they last forever (the one I got for freshman year of college was the same one I used all over Europe last year almost 10 years later).  We bought a cheap pair of sneakers to put in his extra clothes bag and he was ready to go!

 

The night before school started, I had to make an unexpected run to the store, so I snagged some donuts for breakfast.  We get donuts for special occasions and I figured the first day of school qualified.  I hid them so Brady wouldn't see them until the next morning.  My mom always took pictures of us eating breakfast before the first day of school, so I decided to keep up with that tradition.

It seems that pictures in front of your front door have been popular on the first day of school (my mom took them when we got to school before we went to elementary school and not sure what we did after that).  Brady grabbed his backpack and kinda smiled for me. 

The elementary kids were across the street waiting for the bus, so Brady was more concerned about them than posing for me.

Andy followed us to the school so he could be there on the first day before he headed to work.  Brady knew right where he wanted to play.  I gather this will be his favorite area.

He has class from 8:30 to 11:30 so I decided to run some errands with Izzie.  We ran to the grocery store (so much easier with one kid) and then she came home and took a nap.  We ran to the post office and then it was time to pick him up.  Crazy how fast three hours goes by when you only have one child to worry about, and a young one at that.  He was excited to see us and gave me a big hug.  I asked about his day and all I got out of him was that he had a snack and played with the cars and play doh.  I opened his backpack at home and there was a dot painting, so he told me that he painted.  Other than that, I haven't been about to get more details.  Hopefully as time goes on, he'll be more descriptive about his day.