Our youngest had his last day of preschool yesterday. Next week he starts kindergarten - it'll be at the same place that he has been going for several years, but now we're into public instruction.
I've been driving to the same place - The Children's Garden in Shiremanstown, for 9 years most every weekday mornings, and before our son finishes kindergarten, it'll be ten years. It is hard to believe that I've been doing the same route for so long. Nine years: four different cars we've driven, four different carseats, countless numbers of toys in the backseat, probably over a hundred field trips with our kids through The Children's Garden over the years.
It's been a great nine years with The Children's Garden, and both kids are smart and happy and have enjoyed both their teachers and their classmates. One of the things I have enjoyed the most about it so far is the interaction between everyone. At our daughter's public school, she catches the bus to and from school, and our interaction with the kids in her class and her teachers is fairly limited. But at the preschool, we're there everyday the kids are, dropping off and picking up, talking with the other kids in the class, the parents of other kids, the teachers, the administrators. Most of the kids that are in our son's kindergarten class have been in the preschool program with him for years, and they know us, and we know them. The Children's Garden has been a special environment for our kids - and for us as parents - and I ought to try to capture and catalog the next year in my mind, because after this year, that's the only place I'll be able to experience them.