Evie aka Smartie Pants

We are now three weeks into the school year and so far, preschool is going great! 

The night before, Evie starts getting excited when I tell her that the next day is a school day.  She usually goes to bed a little bit easier because I remind her that she needs a lot of rest so that she has energy for school.  When I pick her up from Titi’s house in the afternoon, she always flies out the door, bursting with enthusiasm and talking a mile a minute about anything and everything.  She’s so eager to get started when I drop her off at school that she barely remembers to give me a hug goodbye.  However, I’m still not really sure what she does each day because whenever we ask her about her school day, she is always very vague.  I know her class schedule and I have a general idea about what goes on, but I wish Evie would tell me more about her experience.  I’ll just have to keep asking!  To say I’m relieved that everything is going so well would be an understatement.  I wasn’t sure how this would all go, but so far, it’s been an easy transition for all of us.  I leave work on Mon. and Wed. at lunchtime to pick her up from the sitter’s house and take her to school.  This is very important to me, especially this early in the school year.  I want to have a presence in her classroom and for her teacher to know me.  I may not be able to make it work every single time, but I’m going to try.  Some days I pick her up from school and sometimes one of her grandparents pick her up.  I wish I could pick her up each time, but it doesn’t always work with my schedule and we are incredibly grateful for the help.  Yes, there is some running around and coordinating involved in having Evie in preschool while we work full-time, but seeing Evie thrive assures me that we made the right decision.  She was ready for preschool and it has been so good for her so far!

Evie is such a bright little girl (in my opinion anyway) and she absolutely loves to learn.  We recently started going to the big kid section of the library to check out what she terms “adventure books”.  They are mostly books about animals and dinosaurs, two of her favorite things.  When we first checked these kinds of books out, I figured we’d just look at the pictures, but that’s not what Evelyn had in mind.  She wants to learn about the animals.  She is fascinated by it and she’s not shy about sharing her knowledge.  For example, an a recent walk we saw a large bird…

Evie:  Mama look!  It’s an eagle.

Me:  Wow.  It’s so big.

Evie:  Yes it is.  I know a lot about eagles.

Me:  You do?  What do you know?

Evie:  Eagles have big nests.  They don’t get a white head until they are big.

Me:  That’s true.  So what do eagles eat?

Evie:  Mouses.  Or hamsters.  Maybe we should go to the store and get some mouse and hamster food to feed the eagles.

That’s just one conversation of many that we have.  This week was letter ‘D’ week at school and she was supposed to bring in something that started with D to show-and-tell.  We were talking about different things that started with D and we mentioned dinosaurs... 

Evie:  Maybe I can bring my brachiosaurus to school!  Or maybe my stegosaurus!

Me:  That’s a great idea!

Pat:  Evie – what does a brachiosaurus eat?

Evie:  Plants and leaves.

Pat:  Why do they eat that?

Evie:  Um…because…what?

Pat:  They are vege….

Evie:  Because they are vegetarian!

Another night we were reading a book before bedtime.  Or I should say that I was sitting there and Evie was telling me about the animals on each page…

Me:  What’s that?

Evie:  That’s a blue spotted sting ray.  They have sting rays at the zoo, but they are not the same.

Me:  Oh I love this page!  (pointing to a picture) It has dolphins and whales on it.

Evie:  Mama!  That is not a whale!  That is an orca.

Me:  Ok…  (next page) Oh look! Pink flamingos!

Evie:  They eat lots of shrimp and that make them pink.

Me:  Seriously?  I didn’t know that.  I do you know about that?

Evie:  I don’t know.  I just learned it.

I think it’s safe to say that our girl has a love for animals and for learning.  I hope and pray that this thirst for knowledge continues throughout her life!