REGISTERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sent Haven's preschool registration form and money in yesterday!!!!!!!!!  Jason and I decided that we'd start her at 2x a week and see how things go and maybe move her to 3x a little later on if everything works out.  I'm so excited!!  She's been asking me all week if she gets to go to preschool yet, lol.  She'll be like "Can I go to preschool after I wake up from my nap?"  Me:  "No, hunny, not for a while still."  Haven:  "Can I go when Venily gets home from school?"  Me:  "no, not yet"  Haven:  "Can I go tomorrow?"  LOL!  It's going to be a long 7 month wait for her!!  She's already so excited! ♥

Venily's Newest School Info...

She got approved for the Trevor-Wilmot 4K program!!!!!!! (our 2nd choice school).  Wheatland still needs to approve the open enrollment application but their denial has to be postmarked by yesterday so if we don't get anything in the mail on Monday, I think it's safe to say that they approve.  We have still not heard whether or not Wheatland would consider letting Venily go to their 4K program (our 1st choice school) but I'm starting to think that it's going to be too late since they already did their 4K testing.  Also, Venily is approved for full day Head Start preschool at Wheatland if we chose to let her go there (our 3rd choice program).

So, as it stands, Jason and I need to decide if we want her to go to 4K at Trevor-Wilmot (where I'd have to drive her to and from school each day) or full day preschool at Wheatland (where she'd get to take the bus to and from school).  Throw into the mix the fact that I have to be at my house at 7:40am to get Allison on the Wheatland bus and that I will be most likely watching Kylee as well next year and have to get at least 3 kids and myself dressed, ready, and out the door in time to drive Venily off to school (though I won't know until the middle of May if Venily is in the morning or afternoon class) and it starts to get interesting!!

The following year will be so much simpler!  Full day kindergarten for Venily at Wheatland and the bus will pick her up and drop her off with Allison!  (which would also be the case if I sent her to Head Start next year.... but I REALLY want to have her go to 4K!)  Decisions, decisions!!

Also, they didn't send me the results of her 4K screening yet.  I guess it was enough to get her "in" but I am curious to see what scores she got since I know how shy she was during it!

Parent Teacher Conference!

Venily had her end of the year parent teacher conference today!  The teacher said that she is incredibly bright and extremely verbal!  She says that when she talks to her, she feels like she's talking to a 4.5 year old (she'll be 3.5 years old next month)! :)  She was evaluated in a variety of different areas and scored above where she should be on almost everything again.  The only thing she got "at age level" was with some of her social interactions like "sharing".  The teacher said that she's very opinionated on what she wants to do!  (Like we didn't know that already, lol!).  Sometimes when she's playing with a group of friends she can be very insistent on what she wants to do/ what she wants to play with etc, and sometimes has a difficult time sharing.  If she sees Mrs. Vivian looking at her, she'll do it, but the teacher can tell she doesn't want to.  Another thing she brought up, which I thought was interesting is that she will sometimes not express fully the things that she knows.  (Which makes me even more anxious about her 4K screening results).  She can be really unsure of herself at some times.  I have noticed this myself.  Sometimes I KNOW that she knows something or how to do something, but she won't do it b/c she only wants to do it if she's 100% confident in herself.  She's really afraid to make mistakes.  I'm the same way!!  Jason says that she's a combination of over confident (from him) and insecure (from me) at the same time, haha!  The teacher said it might just be a phase or her unsureness might be just a part of her personality.

Surprisingly when we brought up her severe shyness the teacher said that she doesn't see that from her at all.  She isn't shy to the other preschool teacher or to the director, Mrs. Phyllis, but other than that she doesn't really interact with any other adults.  Actually, we saw Mrs. Phyllis at the library the other day and Venily was so excited and waved and said hi to her! :)

Screening 1 of (hopefully) 3

Preschool/ 4K Update


Venily had her first screening yesterday.  This one was for Head Start (the 3rd on my list of hopeful outcomes).  Actually, it was really just me filling out a TON of paperwork, she didn't have to do anything for this one (though she'll have an eval taken sometime soon).  She was pretty shy at first anyway- which then turned to naughtiness by the end.  Hopefully our 4K screening next week goes well!  We are still waiting for the Wheatland School Board meeting to take place (I guess the middle of this month) to see if there is any way she can be early admitted to Wheatland.


I still have mixed emotions on Head Start.  For one, I don't know if the one she will go to will take her half days (it's a full day program, which I guess is rare).  Though on the other hand, Venily is driving me absolutely crazy and I'm wondering if a full day program wouldn't be such a bad idea... haha.  Also, Jason and I got a bad impression of the teachers we saw at the head quarters (though the lady we spoke with was really nice).  However, I guess the teacher she'd be with has her Master's degree and is a great teacher.  I just don't know, I think I'd probably feel a lot better if I actually got to meet the teacher and see the room she'd be in.  

Oh!  Also, they lied straight to us while we were at the headquarters!  There was a police officer there and Jason walked into the office area to wait and heard them talking about a missing girl (maybe one of the teacher's actual children or someone), describing the girl, when she went missing, etc.  The lady that did our screening wasn't the woman who usually does them and was visibly shooken up.  She kept saying that a child was sick and they had been dealing with it all morning (but she kept being really vague and correcting herself a lot when she'd say something that didn't make sense with the rest of her story), but when we left and got in the car, Jason told me that NO, a child wasn't sick, there was a child MISSING (he had overheard it).  Hmmmm....  I DESPISE being lied to!  Why even say anything to us?!  I'd rather she had just said "an incident" or something... or nothing at all, what would I have known?!  Oh well...




On a different subject, I brought Haven to a Building Blocks class all by herself for the first time this morning (while Venily was at preschool.  Usually it's not worth me driving Venily to school, coming home, driving back to Burlington, coming home, and then driving there and back again to pick Venily up.... but Jason dropped her off at school this morning on the way to his classes, so it wasn't so bad.  Plus Haven and I visited stores in between Building Blocks and picking Venily up!  Haven did so well, I was so proud of her!  I really should bring her to more places by herself.  She loved the songs and dancing and marching, and toys and all of that!  I need to make sure that she doesn't become shy at all and gets in her socialization in other setting that don't include Venily! :)

4K/ Preschool Next Year!

Okay, I've written a ton of posts about this in absolute frustration, but never posted any, lol!  As I've said before, Venily misses the 4K cutoff by 1.5 months.  Cutoff is Sept 1st, she has an Oct 13th birthday.  She is currently in preschool and is the youngest in her class, but does exceptionally well and is more than ready to go to 4 year old kindergarten next year, but our district has a school board rule where they will not do an early assessment for 4 year old kindergarten- meaning, they won't let you go in early.  However, they WILL let you do an assessment and get into 5 year old kindergarten early if the child passes (which I absolutely plan on doing).

Wisconsin also has open enrollment, where you can go to any school (not just in your district) if they have room and you want to drive your child there yourself.  I found a school that's not too far away that will do an early assessment for her and let her in their 4K class.  HOWEVER... DPI says that in order for your child to go to 4K in another district your own district must offer 4K (it does) and your child must be eligible for that 4K program (she doesn't b/c they won't do an early assessment).  Sooooo.... I put in a call to DPI to plead my case.  She said that nope, she can't go to another 4K program if she can't go to the one in my district.  UNLESS.... Wheatland were to say it was okay (and she was highly doubtful that they would ever do this- I assume they'd have to pay for it).  

So, next step was to call Wheatland and ask if we could open enroll to another district since they won't let her into their program.  I made Jason call b/c he's great at that sort of thing and I get so emotional that I almost cry and forget half of what I want to say, lol.  He got a hold of the district superintendent who is fairly new and didn't have any idea about Wheatland's 4K policy.  He asked if we would consider her in the top 5% intelligent-wise for her age group (we definitely do) and asked a bunch more questions.  He was really interested in helping us out and called a whole separate board meeting to re-evaluate their rule just b/c of Venily, LOL!!!  We haven't heard back from him on how that went, but I am grateful to him for at least trying.  *fingers crossed*

SOOOOO.... here's our options for next year!

1.)  My absolute ideal situation would be that Venily gets into 4K at Wheatland.  It's an awesome program.  I love the school.  I know the teacher well and love her (I've subbed for her a bunch of times while pregnant with Venily)!  It's 5 days a week (half days) and is FREE and the bus would pick her up and drop her off at our house.  Awesome, awesome, awesome!!   I don't think it's going to happen, but at least I now have some hope! :)  Plus, I plan on sending her to Wheatland for Kindergarten- 8th grade as well and it would be nice for her to get used to the school that she's going to spending so much time in! (and in a perfect world, I'd get a teaching job there once Haven is in school as well!) :)

2.)  My 2nd ideal situation would be that Wheatland would allow us to open-enroll.  I don't know what their stance is on this, but I signed her up for the other district just in case since the paperwork was due last Friday.  I had to fill out tons and tons of forms and pay $20, but it will be worth it if the Wheatland thing doesn't work out.  All the people I have talked to from that school have been super nice.  It would also be 5 days a week and free, but we'd have to bring her to and from school (which will be extra hard since I have Allison getting on and off the bus at my house and it's a bit of a drive to get there).  She has a 4K screening scheduled at the end of March if this option all works out!

3.)  Lastly, I also filled out all the paperwork for Head Start.  This is also at Wheatland and the bus would also pick her up and drop her off at my house.  And it's also 5 days a week and I have the option of sending her half days or full days (I would definitely only send her half days!!!).  It is also free b/c we qualify financially.  Jason seems to think that this should be my 2nd choice, but I just have a lot of apprehension about sending her there.  It's a preschool program, but I just so wanted her to go to 4K since I absolutely plan on her going into 5K the following year.

4.)  A 2nd year at her current preschool was an idea we considered, but decided against!  Just sending her 2x a week puts a HUGE financial strain on us and I would want her to go more than twice a week to prepare her for kindergarten the following year.  I was really sad when I had to tell her teacher. :(

That's where we're at now!!  It drives me crazy not knowing!!  I don't do well with indecision and waiting for the pieces to all fall in place!  Another thing that fills me with anxiety is the kindergarten screening process... I really don't know what to expect!  If a guy does it, I know hand-down Venily will not say a single word. :(  And if it's a woman, she will probably be a bit shy at first, but I think she'll do fine (but can't be certain- it takes her a bit to warm up to some women too).

The only thing I can do is wait and see!!

Random...

Haven had a rough night last night!  We fought her fever all day yesterday and could hardly get it below 102 WITH Ibuprofen AND Tylenol.  We had her sleep between us last night and she was fitful all night.  Scary breathing and moaning and all!  One time I picked her up and she said "owwwww, owwwww" and gave me the biggest hug.  I wanted to cry. :(  We had alarms set for almost every hour and gave her tons of medicine (she doesn't wake up when we feed her medicine while she sleeps).  She was doing pretty well all morning today though and woke up from her afternoon nap a COMPLETELY different child!!  I'm so glad the antibiotics finally kicked in!


Venily went to the dentist this morning to get her molars sealed!  She did AMAZING!!!!!!!  She kept telling me she didn't want to go so I was prepared for a disaster when we got there, but she was an angel!  The dentist and assistant were both females and super good with her! :)  The dentist said that she was the youngest patient she had ever had and that she had been so nervous all morning when she saw her age, but she couldn't believe how good she was!  YAY, VENILY!!!


After her appointment we had her preschool's "Family Thanksgiving Feast" where we got to eat a Thanksgiving lunch with her preschool class and their families!  So cute!!!  The kids made cute little turkey centerpieces and Venily was excited that she got to eat some the pumpkin bread that they made in class last week! :)

Parent Teacher Conference!

I had Venily's preschool parent-teacher conference today!  I don't know why, but I had so much anxiety about it and was disappointed it had to be during the day so Jason couldn't come with (he really wanted to come).  I have never been on the "parent" side of parent-teacher conferences before!  Her teacher had a little evaluation sheet on Venily as well as a few pieces of work that she's done.  She told me how Venily is way beyond her age-level in almost everything!  She had a picture of a drawing that Venily did of herself (which was AMAZING by the way, lol) and said that she is able to draw way beyond what she "should" be drawing at this point.  She was really impressed by her vocabulary and how much she knows (colors, shapes, letters, counting, etc) and is going to specifically work with Venily now on writing her name!!  She says that she's definitely ready to start working on writing letters!  She also said that she is really sweet and is talking in class more and more (something that I am MOST proud of!)!! :)  She participates in class and really enjoys playing with her friends and playing pretend!  And loves talking about her family!


However, she has two areas that she is "at age-level" which includes being able to express her emotions with words (she gets emotional a lot just like her Mommy, haha, her little eyes well-up with tears) and sharing (her teacher said that sometimes if one of her friends wants something she will take it from another child and give it to her friend).  So those are areas that we are going to work on even harder.  Everything her teacher said was spot-on with how she is at home, so I knew just what she was talking about.  It's good to know that she doesn't act too differently.  Oh, also she can cut with scissors but needs to work on cutting straight lines.


She also told me once again that she often forgets that Venily just turned 3 b/c she seems so much older and is so tall!  It was a good conference and I really like knowing a little more about what goes on when I'm not around.  If they had a camera that I could watch, I'd probably spend the whole 3 hours each day watching what she does, lol.  It's so weird being a parent and not knowing!  I can't imagine what it would be like not seeing her for a whole school day!!!!  At her preschool, I get monthly overview calendars, weekly reports of activities they do, and there is more in-depth weekly lesson plans up on her door, but it's just not the same as actually WATCHING what's going on and how Venily does!

Venily's 1st Field Trip!!!

Venily went on her first field trip last Wednesday to The Apple Barn!!  She got to ride on a bus all by herself and Haven and I drove there as well, so we could come too!  She sat with her teacher, Mrs. Vivian (since she's technically still 2 and needed to be with an adult) and Mrs. Vivian said she was very talkative the whole trip and showed her where each and every corn stalk was that they passed, lol!  We got to go on a hay ride, pick apples right off the trees, pick pumpkins, go on a tour of the facilities there and all the things they make, and have a snack of apples, apple cider donuts, and apple juice! :)  It was fun, but Haven was not having a good time at all! :(  She whined almost the whole time, which is sooooo crazy for her!  It was supposed to be her naptime AND she is having an absolute miserable time cutting these molars!  I couldn't put her down for a second, I feel so bad for her!!  Venily wanted to ride the bus back to her school instead of just coming straight home with me, and I ended up getting HOPELESSLY lost on the way home.  Like hyperventilating, crying to a bunch of construction workers, barely able to think and lucky I didn't get into an accident, type of lost!  AND THIS IS WITH A GPS, lol!  I had taken a different way to get there b/c I had to run home quick and get Venily different shoes.  I luckily was only about 5 minutes late picking her up though since I left to go back to her preschool well before the buses left.
 

And how fricken cute are these girls in their matching Halloween outfits?!  LOL!  They have other matching Halloween shirts too!  :)  Obviously Haven was a much happier camper after 2 naps and some Tylenol, haha!

Week 2 of preschool!!

Venily finished her 2nd week of preschool!!!!  She LOVES it so much!!!  She gets so excited to go and loves putting on her backpack and her "preschool clothes" and "preschool shoes", etc.  :)  Each day she is so excited to go into her classroom and couldn't care less that I leave her there!  Words cannot even express how proud I am of her... you have no idea how her reaction to going is FAR better than I ever thought imaginable!!!  She is a quiet, "shy" (until she gets to know you) girl that has never left her mom before, but she is so independent and adjusts so well to new environments... it is such a shock to me!  Makes me feel like I'm doing something right! :)

I absolutely love hearing how well her day went and what cool things she got to do that day, what she ate for snack, who she played with at recess, what books the teacher read, etc.!  Venily has an amazing memory and is always telling me everything that happens in the books Mrs. Vivian reads to them! :)


She got a Scholastic Book Club order form today and an invitation to give to her grandparents for "Grandparents and Grand Friends" day so they can come and see her at school (not sure if my mom has to work that day), but how fricken cute is that?!


She is growing up so fast and she's not even 3 yet... and to think, she's (hopefully) going to be riding the bus next year and going to school 5x a week... it's so crazy!!!!

Here's just a few of her artwork pieces from school!  I'm just a little proud of her, lol! :)

A dinosaur she traced... (her teacher was really impressed!) :) 
Some hearts she traced...
A picture of a face she drew... (CORRECTION- I have been informed that it's a dinosaur!! lol.  She really loves dinosaurs right now!)
And some paper she cut...

:) 

First Day of Preschool!!!!

My big girl is officially a preschooler!!!  I can't even believe it!!

She's been so excited and talking about preschool for several weeks straight now!  We got ready, dropped Allison off on the bus and headed to her school.  When we got into the parking lot, she says "Look at my legs Mommy!" (she was still sitting in her car seat and kicking her legs like crazy) and then says "I'm so excited about preschool!".  LOL, and then Haven was copying her... she must have been excited too!!  :)  She put her backpack on and headed into the school.  She hung her backpack and jacket up in her cubby and went into her classroom. She found her name at the little table and sat down.  I looked at her and she was so pretty and so grown up looking I almost lost it right there, haha!  I kissed her and hugged her and said goodbye.  She said goodbye to me and that was it.  No tears, no begging me to stay!  She was being really quiet, but that's usually how she gets in new situations.  As I was heading out the door I peeked back in on her and she was picking out a play dough color to play with (blue, of course!).  I had to go down in the basement and learn how to clock her in and out on the machine.  I checked back in on her without her seeing me, she was doing such a good job... I'm so proud of her!

I started crying as I drove home.  Then I would get it together for a bit and then picture her sitting back at that table and lose it again, haha!  Oh, she is just getting so big!!

I worried a lot for the 3 hours she was gone!  I kept thinking of all the things that could be going wrong, etc.  But when I came to pick her up, she ran over to me and gave me a huge hug!  She and her teacher (and the preschool director) told me that she had a great day!!!!  I am so, sooo, soooooo PROUD OF HER!!!!!!  The whole ride home she told me all about her new friends and what she did today!  She can't wait to go back next week!!  And she already has a whole backpack full of artwork that she did today, haha!  (P.S. I totally forgot to clock her back out... oops!)

This is the first time I've ever left her anywhere (besides with immediate family) and she did SO AMAZING!!!  I don't think there's anything this girl can't do!

******************

-As always, I have a lot of updates for Haven, but am saving them for her 11.5 month update on Friday!!

This fall Venily will officially be a...

PRESCHOOLER!!!!  I'm so excited!  Turned in her paperwork and deposit this morning!  After freaking out about the decision, I tried to calm down and I realized that it was all going to be alright.  Then I spoke with the director today and knew that I had without a doubt made the right choice!  She assured me that each child's education is highly individualized and that about half the students right now are onto reading sight words!!!

Also, I found out that my father-in-law's girlfriend who also happens to be (see if you can follow this, lol) my step-father's brother's ex-wife (LOL! so I basically considered her my aunt for a number of years) works in the kitchen there and has for many years, so I have someone I know working there that can perhaps keep an eye on her!

I'm not going to lie, I thought that I was going to handle leaving her pretty easily but when I was there for the tour and I imagined her playing with the kids and me leaving, I got quite choked up!  haha!  It's only for 3 hours a day, twice a week: Mondays & Wednesdays (I got to pick which days)!  She is going to have so much fun though and learn so much, I can't wait!!!!!

Little Miss Haven has an important 1/2 birthday tomorrow and I am working on her update, I'll post it tomorrow!  I can't believe how fast my children are growing up!!

Preschool

Okay, so I'm freaking out about preschool.  I'm going crazy researching and trying to find one!!


There was one that I was SUPER, SUPER excited about!  A lot of the people in my play group have had children go through the program.  It's a Montessori school and at first when I kept hearing people talk about it I assumed it was a religious school so I just ignored everything they were saying, but it turns out it's absolutely not!  It's a really different program that emphasizes a lot on hands-on learning, learning through play,  and real-life situations.  They don't have any "toys" there, just things you'd find in every day life.  (which makes sense, why would I pay money for my child to play with toys?! especially since we have a TON of toys at our own house and I bring Venily to a play group/story time/ library classes, etc. already!)  The one woman I talked to who had a daughter go through the program told me that almost all the students that leave their preschool leave already knowing how to read!  So I was really psyched about it!


Venily, Haven, and I took a tour of it this week and we really liked it, but it didn't quite live up to my INCREDIBLY high standards... so I'm really at a loss as to what to do!


Things I loved about it:
*small class size, only 7 in a class!
*the teachers are really experienced and most have their bachelor's degrees! (important to me since I have an education degree)
*academic focused, a lot more so than any other preschools in the area
*thorough weekly lesson plans that are posted so I can see what is going on each day
*great atmosphere


Things I didn't love:
*we are on a Very tight budget and though it's comparable to any other preschool, we are only going to be able to afford 2 days a week (you can send your child 1-5 days a week) and even that's going to be pushing it for us!
*it's at a church... there is absolutely no religious component to their teaching but like as I walked in there was a poster that said "God loves all children."  I'm fine with that, but it's not the ideal situation for me.
*Okay, and here's the biggest thing- I read through the parent handbook and all the handouts and things they gave me and their curriculum goals weren't as high as I was anticipating.  Specifically it says that
-'depending on interest, children will be introduced to the letters and sounds of the alphabet' and 'children are introduced to counting 1-20'. And this is for the 3 and 4 year old class.  Venily already knows how to do all these things!


So what do I do?!  There are other curriculum goals of course, but nothing that I don't do with her already or that aren't covered by the various other classes and things we go to.


I WANT to send her to preschool.  I WANT someone else to teach her 6 hours a week.  But I'm not sure if it's worth the financial strain that it will put on us!  I'm thinking with such a small class they'll be able to work with her at her level, but I'm not certain of it.  I am going so crazy over this decision!


Venily's a smart girl and I want her to have some experience in a 'school setting' because I'm hoping to skip her a grade and put her right into kindergarten the following year instead of 4K.  I'd put her into 4K in the fall, but she's technically still only going to be 2 years old at the start of the year and I doubt they'd take her that early.


I could always send her to the preschool and continue to supplement her education at home.  Then I'd basically be paying to get her used to school.  She's never been away from me for any length of time (only close family ever watches her and that's not very often) and I've NEVER just dropped her off somewhere where she didn't know anybody, so that'll probably be quite an adjustment.  Hmmm.... I just don't know!


I have her paperwork all filled out and ready to hand in along with her deposit, but I'm so on the fence as to whether or not to send her!  What do you think?!  I need to come up with a decision quick b/c they are already almost booked for fall!