First Day of School

We start early around here.  At 19 months of age, we decided that it was time for Kendall to hit the books and enrolled her in school.  OK, I'm kidding.  Sort of.

Over the past few months two things had become apparent:
1.  Kendall was ready for a preschool type setting where she could socialize
2.  I needed to work more

So, we started visiting daycares and I have to say that we were completely underwhelmed.  The daycare options near our home and offices were for the most part extremely expensive and not places that I was jumping to send our baby.  They were all OK, but nothing that really had me excited.

The last place that we visited was the Aspirations School of Learning.  The school uses the Italian Reggio Emilio approach to teaching.  It's a brand new center, clean and organized, and offers a variety of programs in art and music that are included in the monthly tuition.  And, it's right down the street from Dan's office.  I was sold.  We signed Kendall up that day for the Monday/Wednesday/Friday toddler program.

Fast forward a couple of months, and the school year has arrived.  Monday was the first day of school.  Kendall is in Room Cinque (for those of our handful of readers not named Carla Menchini, that's Italian for "five") with her teachers, Miss Megan and Miss Radha.  I had been worried about how she would adjust to the new surroundings, but before we left the house, I was able to reassure myself that her heart-melting smile would carry her through:

Seriously, what kid smiles like this?!?!

Anyways, although the school has a formal approach to teaching, days in room Cinque are appropriately filled with playing, snacking, napping and making friends.  I love that the teachers prepare notes for the parents at the end of each day.  Our first note read, "Kendall had lots of fun in the house in the yard.  She also had fun chatting with her stuffed doggie until it was time to wake up".

Obviously she's going to be just fine.