Its a Hero

school

Back to PRESCHOOL Must-Haves!

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We JUST started back-to-school last week! I was READY! I know, I know.. preschool is just a few days a week, for just a few hours a day. But being on this schedule saves our family, ya’ll!

Ari is currently enrolled at the YMCA (where I work) for preschool. He attended two-day preschool last year, so this year I bumped him to 3-days. And, even though it’s *just* preschool, it’s important to make sure we’re all prepared for a change.

A backpack. Ari needs to take his swim trunks and a towel to school with him, but even if he didn’t, he would take a backpack. Preschoolers are always coming home with art projects and letters from teachers explaining what they did that day. It’s just the easiest way to keep all of that in one place until preschool pickup.

PS. Ari picked out his own backpack — this Skip Hop unicorn backpack. One of the many reasons I love this kid so damn much! 

Reusable snack bags. No, Ari doesn’t get ‘snack time’ during school; but as soon as school is over, that kid is hungry! I mean, aren’t you after you spend a morning learning your face off?? Haha! 🙂 So these snack packs come in handy!

A Water Bottle. Honestly, what is it about preschool that makes kids so dang thirsty!? If I forget Ari’s water bottle, he will chug all of the water from mine. So I always have his water bottle full for him so he can drink up as soon as I pick him up.

We happen to love this Contigo Autoseal kids water bottle! It works perfectly and is the absolute perfect size for my little guy.

Dry erase lapboard. This lapboard is key, y’all! One thing that amazed me from Ari’s first year of preschool was how quickly he learned his letters and how to write his name. Like, for months the only thing he would say when someone asked him how to spell his name was “A – R – I… Ari!” 🙂 But that is because we practiced — a lot!

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Age appropriate flash cards. Knowing that preschoolers learn by playing, Ari and I make games out of flash cards. He already knows his colors, shapes, and numbers; but this year we’re working on sight words so he’s ready for the next step (ahhhh!! kindergarten!!).

New shoes! I’m not team #AlwaysNeedsNewClothes. In fact, we buy so many of our children’s clothes gently-used from a local consignment shop. I always find Gap jeans and Gymboree clothes (with tags on!) for, like, three bucks! Heck yes! But one thing I never skimp on is shoes. Our children stand, play, jump, and run, nonstop. It’s so important that they have support. So I have actually purchased several sizes in these Stride Rite shoes so that I can just have them on hand for when he grows!

So if you’re a mom of a preschooler, what would you recommend to have for preschool-readiness?? Did I miss something?

If you’re not yet to the preschool years, Pin this post for later!

the weekend + our first day of school.

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Guys. GUYS. I have a preschooler. My heart hurts and is, simultaneously, so overjoyed. What are these feelings!? Ugh!

OK, so this weekend was, simply, lovely.

Saturday Miss Bea woke up early (of course), and we ended up taking a nap by 8am. We woke up just in time to get ready to go to the Akron Zoo as they opened. Surprisingly, the zoo wasn’t busy at all. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! Zero humidity. No warmer than like 80 degrees. Just absolutely amazing.

We met up with some friends and their two kids. Ari gets so excited whenever there are “friends” for him to play with. The girls, just a tad bit older than him, quickly took him under their wing and helped to escort him from exhibit to exhibit. I wore Remy in the ErgoBaby and she was content.

It was great catching up with friends we haven’t seen in nearly ages (it’s Chad’s best friend from high school — we’ve seen him since high school lol. But it’s been about a year).

We all went to bed at 7:15pm Saturday night and it was glorious!

Sunday was completely low-key. I mean, like, everyone took naps, and I went on a trip to Target. That’s it.

But Monday we woke up and went to the apple orchard. Honestly, I keep remembering “our last family outings” and they were basically a year ago. Sure, we’ve done things here and there over the last year; but since I was pregnant and Remy was born we’ve kinda been in hibernation mode (thanks to sickness and then a super awful baby). So it feels like we were *just* at the apple orchard when, in reality, it was a year ago…

We walked through the orchard, tasted peaches and apples, and eyed up the pies. We ended up getting home before it got too hot and spending the rest of the day napping and prepping for our first day of school!

That’s right. Tuesday was not only my first day of teaching gymnastics to the preschoolers at the Y for the Fall, but it was Ari’s very first day of preschool! He’s going to preschool at the Y two days a week. And each day during his class he gets swim lessons built in! Bonus!!

Dude had no reservations whatsoever. And was totally in teenager mode when it came to me asking for a picture. Insert toddler eyeroll and refusal to smile!

I didn’t cry nearly as much as I expected to as I dropped him off. Then again, I didn’t really have an opportunity to. I was so busy getting the gym ready for classes myself! When I picked Ari up after preschool he had, like, zero to report. Seriously? Such a threenager!! “How was school?” “Good.” “Anything exciting happen??” “No.”

It turns out, he did go swimming (and he liked it!) and he sang a new (to him) song! So see? Exciting things did happen in preschool. He just failed to report them — initially!

Aaaand now this blog post is coming during yet another weekend. Ugh. I just cannot be caught up on life. Or sleep. Or my DVR. 🙂 But for serious, friends… have a good weekend!