New beginnings

Yesterday was Todd's last day at his preschool in Granada Hills. I was sad to take him out of it, as he'd made friends and was learning some good stuff there, but we didn't have much of a choice. A lot of the stuff he learned was really advanced-- stuff like alphabet, numbers, logical reasoning, telling time, even basic addition... stuff that's not normally taught until kindergarten or even first grade! Good grade-K-prep, for sure!

Today I took Todd to his new preschool in Santa Barbara for a tour. It's about 15 minutes away from our apartment. We were greeted by the director of the school, who also happened to be the pre-K teacher! We toured the facilities and got a glimpse of each class: the 2-3 year olds, the 3-4 year olds, and the pre-K class. It looked like a good place for Todd.

I was most impressed by the academic curriculum-- I thought his old preschool was advanced (and it is), but this was even more advanced! The toddler class was in the midst of learning beginning phonics (which I'd taught Todd myself), and the pre-K class was already on blended sounds, measurements, and counting money.

After the tour we stopped by an education store which contained all sorts of educational material for both parents and teachers-- books, toys, games, crafts, and supplies. And all the books that I perused that contained the material Todd had learned or would learn, was in the books marked at Kindergarten or Grade 1 level.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with what I've seen so far. Todd begins on Monday. I hope he adjusts well and enjoys learning new things with his new teacher and new classmates!