Tag Archives: preschool

Lucy at Laurel Hill

22 Aug 2012


One word: YAY!

Today was Lucy’s first day at Laurel Hill. It went really well. Honestly, we didn’t have any doubts. Well, maybe, one, about how we chose to send her for afternoons (1 to 4, M-F) and what will happen to her nap. Today the nap happened in the car on the way home, which was fine. But I need to back up!

I’d forgotten about how many little rituals and details that come with Laurel Hill, and how Lucy doesn’t know any of it yet. How potentially overwhelming! For example, where to put your stuff, when to go where, where you can / can’t go, whether you need shoes, or need to remove you shoes (dome/playhouse). “Group meeting time” will come to mean something to Lucy, but today I think it all whizzed by in a flash.

She met Kaile (pronounced Ki-lee), who is sort of like her homeroom teacher. Her cubby is in Yellow room, and Kaile is the yellow room teacher in the afternoons. But she also got to meet Sally, Inga (♥), Ann, Maria, Collette, etc! They are all Sooooo nice. Off the charts nice. Like, nicer than I could ever be on my best day. It’s good to be a kid at Laurel Hill.

I was wondering how the first little bit of playtime would go, and what Lucy would do. There is a lot of choice. So much to discover. I don’t know if it was fate that caught her eye, or if she searched them out, but just as I was re-hanging a fallen jacket, Lucy shouts out, and hold up her arms in display: Scissors!!!

She has been proclaiming all summer that she would “use scissors at Laurel Hill”. A mantra that she made up for herself? I’ve enforced a no-scissors rule at home, but we all encouraged the scissors plan for Laurel Hill. It was Fun to see her jam over to the scissors table, and start practicing. She owned it for a good 15 minutes.


(Photo taking isn’t really encouraged, so I wasn’t allowed to go into full paparazzi mode. My shots suffer a bit from being on the DL)

What else. She played with some farm toys, she used the potties, she played in the sand, we read books. She really liked Yellow room’s playhouse. They have a play kitchen, dolls, dress-up, and a great ladder to more space up high. Lucy put on a cape. A sassy little girl told her That’s Not how you wear it. Lucy’s eyes got wide. My eyes got wide. I didn’t know what to say. I think I ended up saying, “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say”. The moment passed. Lucy made no effort to adjust the cape.

At a certain point my job was to work in the kitchen. I leaned in to Lucy’s ear as she was playing and I said, “I gotta leave for a bit”. She kept playing.
Ta-da!

At the end of the day Lucy was tired. She yawned really big at group meeting time. But no melt downs, and she even VOLUNTEERED, to Kaile, to sing a song. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I suppose that’s the one that’s in her wheelhouse.) We were all sitting on the rug together. I mean, it wasn’t a case of ‘who knows twinkle twinkle’, – it was Lucy saying, “I can sing a song”, and Kaile saying, what song would you like to sing? I was super proud.

More photos after the jump…
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Lucy’s First Soccer

19 Feb 2012

Did you know they have soccer for 2 year olds?
It’s kinda silly, but fun – if the weather is nice (it was). And if you like the coach (I really do!). Actually there were two coaches – horribly excessive considering the talent of these soccer playing professionals. Over qualified is an understatement, but they coach all the different age-groups in “Soccer Kids“, so I get it. Coach Tim is Oscar’s coach, of the Lightening Strikers. They play on Saturdays, with late afternoon practice on Thursdays.
Tim invited me to come to a couple of weekday morning 2-3 y.o. practices with Lucy for free.

Lucy is not quite ready for organized sports yet. The “practices” were fine, but I won’t be signing up for the next session. She has plenty of time. In the fall she will begin preschool. The way it will go, due to her October birthday, is she’ll have 2 years of preschool, followed by a year of pre-K, before enrolling at Clarendon for kindergarten.

Still, it was a fun moment for me to be there for her first practice ever on a field! I was inspired! May there be many more!

Funny Looking Crayons

28 Apr 2011

Someone gave these to us a while ago, and I can’t remember who! Was it you? At the time, I just thought they were odd. But free, and I was in no position to look a gift horse in the mouth. I never am.
Now I know better. They are AWESOME and I’d LOVE to thank the mystery person. This blog post is the best I can do. Come out, come out, whoever you are, and claim your spot in my heart!

The reason these are so cool? They are designed for little hands to hold. They’re an aid to developing fine motor skills (and hand-eye co-ordination). They help guide a child’s early abilities to grip a writing utensil. Those skinny crayons don’t fit in a little hand nearly as well. All the OT’s reccommend a chunky crayon, and the child development specialists, and the preschool teachers, and… me too! Once you get used to the shape, you will love them.

From eHow:
To develop the proper open web space in their hand — the place they should hold a writing utensil — allow preschoolers to use specific preschool crayons. These crayons are best used when drawing on a vertical surface to promote proper wrist and hand movement. Preschool crayons are round and short with a hole down the center. Stuff the hole with cotton to prevent the child from putting his finger in the hole. When children use these short, wide crayons, the web space between the thumb and first finger is stretched and the muscle strengthens.

Lucy likes to stack and sort them, as well as draw with them.

You can find similar ones on Amazon.