First Day of Preschool

Monday was Matthew's first day of preschool.  Next year he will go to kindergarten, which I've heard is all day and pretty serious in our school district.  So I thought it would be good for him to do some kind of preschool this year.  He goes to a public school near our house.  There are two elementary schools within a few blocks of our house and the one with a preschool is not the one we live in the boundaries for.  So he'll go to the other school for kindergarten next year.  Here he is getting ready for our walk to school.

Here we are on the walk.  There is a dirt path behind our house that leads right to the school.  I clocked it with the GPS and walking it's .44 miles door to door one way.  It would be a lot shorter if we could go "as the crow flies" (maybe only .25 miles).  But there are drainage ditches and streets to cross and stuff.  :)

Matthew was really excited about school and he seemed to have a good time on his first day. He drew this picture and wrote his name on the paper. M-A-T-T-H-E-W plus a lowercase b for bus.  :)  Hooray Matthew!  I was kind of sad to send him off to school - it's 3 hours a day for 4 days a week.  I was wondering if I should keep him home with me this year instead.  But I think it will be good for him and help him get ready for kindergarten.  Plus he seems to like it.

Anna on the other hand was very concerned about school.  When we took her into the preschool classroom to drop off Matthew she cried that she didn't want me to leave her there.  Then when we said goodbye to Matthew and left him there, she was very worried about him for the whole 3 hours.  "Is Matthew ok at school?"  "Will Matthew be sad?"  I think she was relieved when we went and got him.  She is hardly ever away from Matthew so I think she will miss him a little.  I told her now we could do some "Anna and Mommy" things while he was at school, just the two of us.  She didn't seem too excited about that.  :)

In any case, this is the beginning of the school years for our family.  :)  No more taking vacations willy nilly in the middle of the school year.  Or maybe we'll still do that.  ;)