Cheeks graduates from Preschool

It is amazing what a difference a year makes. At the end of last school year Cheeks was not a stellar listener nor did she seem to have any interest in her letters, or really anything of an academic nature.

I knew she was going to be the youngest in all her classes at school and I didn't want that fact to be a deficiency for her so, at the beginning of the year, she and I started working on her letters and numbers.

She quickly progressed through them, faster than I thought, and began working on legit reading. At this point she is pretty proficient, in both reading and numbers definitely ready for school. I am so proud of the progress she has made. But not only that, she has learned to listen. She has learned to obey rules. She can still be super squirrelly and  I still worry about her not being able to sit still, but she has grown by leaps and bounds during this past year.

Her class singing about going on a bear hunt

Her class holding up their achievement awards with their sweet teachers. Last year they asked each child what they wanted to be when they grew up. I think Cheeks said something like mermaid. I cringed. This year, thinking they would do something similar I prepped her. One day while we were talking about grown-up jobs I asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. Boy Howdy likes to switch up his answers between police officer and engineer. Cheeks said she wanted to grow plants. I can totally see her doing that. She loves being outside, getting dirty and nurturing those around her. We looked up different professions that grow things and I - I mean we - we decided on horticulturist as her dream vocation. We practiced saying it so that she would be ready when asked.
Yeah, they didn't ask.

Cheeks with her special friend V. V is a year younger than Cheeks and will go to a different school but they became very close during the school year. At one point her mother and I finally got the brilliant idea to swap after preschool one day a week. I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of both their weeks. I'm sad we didn't think of it earlier.

Boy Howdy is oddly adamantly opposed to face painting, but when he's not there . . . Cheeks got up the courage to get hers done! Yay kitty cats!!

Cheeks and her grad classes, courtesy of Mother Marler and her last day of preschool photo.

Her first day of preschool as a wild and wonderful 3-year old. I can't hardly stand all the changing that has happened in the last two years.