Meredith’s last day at her day care was today. She’s been there since she was a baby, and we’ve muddled through until kindergarten- which starts for her tomorrow!!


The daycare she ended up at was not the one we wanted her to be at. It was supposed to be temporary, until she got off the waiting list at another center. That wait list was 2 years long, and at that point she was happy where she was. Now 5.5 years later, here we are, at her last day.

I work part time, so Meredith is only in day care 3 days per week. This ended up being an ideal situation for us. I really dreaded the day care thing. I wanted to stay home full time. I had Meredith and still had no day care plans, and this was before the economy tanked and there were waiting lists for infant care. Luckily, God has his plan for us, and it all worked out.

As much as I feared the germs and evils of daycare, she really learned an amazing amount there:

• Baby sign language

• Sharing

• Waiting her turn

• Playing with others

• Making friends

• Listening and following orders

• Potty training (had her first dry day there)

• Basic kindergarten curriculum (letters, numbers etc.)

• Phonics- she is already reading

• Basic Spanish

• Saying goodbye- to friends and teachers as they leave for other things

• Eating things there she won’t eat at home (such as eggs, tuna fish, and tomato soup)

I’ve also been fortunate to adjust my 24 hours per week and spread it over 4 days to be able to get Meredith off of the bus each day, so she’ll have no real outside care until summer camp. I’m super excited about my new schedule and hope it works out well.

She’s not real sad about leaving day care. I think she so excited and ready for kindergarten, and really, so am I, but melancholy as well as my little girl just keeps getting bigger.