First Day at Expanding Horizons!

September 15th was a big day for Ava and Caroline. It was their first day at their new preschool Expanding Horizons. It's right around the corner at the Carmen Pingree School for Autism and is an inclusive program that incorporates developmentally appropriate methods while mainstreaming one to two autistic students into the classroom.

I love their approach, as they understand that early learning is best achieved through play and fun rather than rigid workbook and rote memorization techniques similar to those adopted by Challenger School and other programs. Since signing them up, I've had several rave reviews from parents of former students. One mom even said her two boys who went to Challenger cried for 30 minutes every day she dropped them off and had a hard time adjusting scholastically and socially to kindergarten, while her daughter who attended Expanding Horizons loved going every day and was reading by the time she hit first grade. Big thanks to Laurel (La) for helping to make this happen and giving me the recommendation. We couldn't be happier.

I believe they have the rest of their young lives to work hard in the classroom and now is the time for fun! And boy do they have fun!

I was a bit worried in the beginning because they go from 8:15 - 11:15 in the morning three days a week. While I'm ecstatic to have 9 whole hours to myself every week, I was not so excited to wake up so early. We usually don't wake up until 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. so the prospect of such an early morning worried me. But the girls were troopers on their first day (and since). They are so excited to go to school that they don't give me any trouble as I wake them promptly at 7:30 and proceed to dress, feed, style their hair and get them on the potty all before leaving the house at 8:00 a.m. I figure we can worry about brushing teeth until after lunch.

Here are a couple of pictures on their first day. I know it's going to be a good year when Ava proclaims before we even get to the car, "I LOVE Extanding Horizons!!!!!"

Outstanding!

Eating a good breakfast because as Caroline says, "I'm getting my energy!"
(wonder where she heard that?)

As soon as we walked into the classroom this little guy comes running up to say hi. The girls are pros at meeting new kids and didn't skip a beat introducing themselves. Then it was off to wash their hands to start the day off nice & clean (LOVE THAT!). They get their own little cubbies with their names and pictures on them too. So cute!