Little Graduate

Leila had her preschool graduation last Saturday, May 27th.  She will be going back for another year a preschool but it was fun to hear all the songs and things they've been learning in preschool.  Leila will rarely ever tell me what she learns at school, I usually have to drag information out of her, like who did you sit by, what did you eat for snack, who was the class leader.  Sometimes stuff she has learned will just sneak out in our day-to-day conversations and Paul seems to be able to get more out of her then me.  She has loved school this entire year and all the kids she went with.  She never had a problem going to school and most of the time didn't even want me to walk her in.  I love that her teacher always met her outside with a great big hug.  There were a couple of times I was able to catch her interacting with her preschool class and teacher without her knowing I was there and it made me so proud to see how independent and outgoing she was with her class.  Because when she is with me she is very shy and needy, which brings me to her program.  She told us several times she didn't want to participate in the program and didn't want us to watch her.  When we got there she wouldn't go sit up with the rest of her class and just wanted to be with me.  I finally had to tell her that if she didn't participate in her preschool program she wouldn't be able to participate in wacky Wednesdays with her preschool class this summer.  I felt really mean for punishing her because she was scared but I feel like if she is old enough to participate in preschool she is old enough to partcipate in the program and all that goes along with preschool.  Plus the confidence she gets after she actually does things like this is so wonderful and it makes her so happy.

She finally decided to go sit with her class but wanted me to stay up there with her, I ended up sitting behind the podeum for most of the program but then she finally said I could go sit down.  She just sat there for the first couple of songs but then participated in the rest but I don't think she smiled the whole time.  

 After the program Mrs. Joy recognized each of the children.  She said Leila was her Loving Leila and was always caring and nice to everyone in the class.   She also recieved her progress report and recieved excellent in every category.  At the half year she was still struggling to recognized several numbers and shapes but now she's got it down.  Mrs. Joy also said she could work on her patience, because sometimes she gets a head of her when following directions.  Which is totally Leila, I'm always having to tell her to be patient, she just has a hard time waiting.  We loved  preschool this year and loved Mrs. Joy and can't wait to go back next year. 

I wanted to get some pictures of Leila at the end but she was very anti having her picture taken, she wouldn't even put on the cap and gown and I figured making her do the program was enough pushing for one day so I didn't force the picture idea.