"New School"

As if Jak and Lillian haven't had enough change in 2013, they are now adjusting to a new school.  Mike and I couldn't be happier with the change, Jak, as usual, is going with the flow and Lillian (also as usual!) required a bit more time to come around.  But here we are in our 4th week at the Wooden Shoe and Lillian is eager to go to school every morning and quick to kiss Daddy goodbye to play with her new friends!  (A welcome change from the 20+ minute drop offs he used to have with her!)

Both kids have Spanish class, Gym class and Music class a couple times a week.  They have an events calendar with real lesson plans and organized art projects.  Jak gets to paint with food and Jell-O, Lillian has Science class with edible experiments. And when Lillian moves up to the 3year old room next week she gets swim lessons twice a week too!  The best part is, it costs the same as what we were paying at Busy Bees! 
Our only complaint is that they didn't put Lillian in the 3 year old room right away.  Some of the other kids in that room aren't quite 3, but they needed to be at least 2 1/2, potty trained and verbal.  I tried to tell them Lillian is potty trained and very verbal, but of course she was acting shy when they met her and didn't show off her language skills.  It wasn't much of a surprise when the director called me to say they want to transition her up to the next room, and here we are moving to another room after only 4 weeks!
Lillian has brought a new tradition home to the Kerschen household, we now pray before we eat.  At the Wooden Shoe they say, "God is great, God is Good and we thank him for our Food, Heyman!"  Of course, they end the prayer with Amen not Heyman but you can't tell Lillian that.  She's adamant about her version and we say it even before we have a snack! 

This week we signed permission slips for Lilian to take a hot air balloon ride (Jak was too young).  Someone at the school has Remax connections and they brought the Remax Balloon to school today for the kids to ride in, FREE!  Lillian was so excited!  She wanted Daddy to ride with her, but Mike explained that the balloon was only for the kids and that Miss Shelley was going to ride up with her.  Lillian and the other kids couldn't wait, they had smiles as big as their face, they skipped all the way down to the baseball field in anticipation, the balloon operator fired up the Hot Air and it let out such a noise, all the smiles turned to looks of trepidation!   They all started crying and not one kid in Lillian's class went up in the balloon... Mike said if the operator had just made it fun for the kids and let them countdown to the big noise, they might have gone.  Oh well...maybe next year!