The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I recently picked up a copy of  The Very Hungry Caterpillar at Kohls as part of their Kohls Cares for Kids $5 book program. Would you believe I had never read this to my children? They are loving it and so am I. There are lessons about nature and healthy eating and it's a great opportunity to have the children count along with me and identify colors.

I can't wait to see their faces when we watch our own caterpillars become butterflies. We recently received an Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden and need to wait for Ohio to finally warm up to order our caterpillars! I'm looking forward to reusing the butterfly habitat for other insects that we temporarily study before releasing back into the wild.

I ordered my Butterfly Garden through kids.woot, but linked to the same product (for more money) on Amazon since Woot is a deal a day site...one that I dearly love and have ordered far too many things from. I check it regularly for goodies :)

Preschool Premiere

Today, my big little girl started school. It's just preschool, but she's attending a program at the public school, and that makes it feel so much more like real school.

She was having second thoughts about it until she met her teacher and saw her classroom yesterday. Then she was so excited and couldn't wait to go back. I hoped she'd wake up easily because she was excited to go, but she's just like me in the mornings. NOT a morning person and she'll go back to sleep if at all possible.

I could tell she was a little unsure about things at times, but for the most part she was excited about this new experience. When it was finally time for her class to walk from the lobby to their classroom, she practically bolted through the door. Her teacher had to take her hand to hold her back. Some of the other kids were crying or reluctant to leave their parents. Mine couldn't wait. It made me a little sad that I was more emotional about this than she was, but I was also proud. I raised her to be an independent, capable young woman and she proved it today.

I'm proud that my sometimes tempermental little girl impressed the preschool screeners enough that she was selected to be a typical peer role model for the integrated preschool program. I'm excited for all the lessons she'll learn there, whether they are typical preschool experiences or the result of attending school with children with special needs.

I hope she's still excited to go after the novelty wears off. I need all the help I can get with her in the mornings!