First Day of PreK

August 13 was the first day of PreK! Mary Beth loves her new class, and she wasn't afraid at all on the first day.

She is getting to be a big girl, but not TOO big, as she informed me today. She had just displayed to me that she could open the car door for herself and close it behind herself, too. She's been buckling her own seatbelt for months now. As we drove off, I said, "Wow, you're getting to be so big! You can open and close the door, buckle your own seatbelt, make up your own bed, and dress yourself! I think you should start cooking supper! Or, maybe you can be the one to drive the car - how about that?"

"No I can't! I'm only 4! I'd have to be 6 or 8..."

Art Camp and More

Mary Beth had a great time at the art camp sponsored by the local United Methodist Church. Here she is working on her masterpiece! On the last day, the teacher promised them that they could go outside and make a big mess with paint. Actually, they weren't all that messy! Mary Beth was the only one who wanted to fill in every inch of the "canvas." On the evening of the last day, the church put on an art show and displayed the works from this class and an older class. All the parents came to admire the art and have some refreshments, and the kids enjoyed feeling important.

Tomorrow, she'll be off to her first day of Pre-Kindergarten. We met her teacher last week (and liked her) and were happy to discover that her good friend will be in the same class. We're looking forward to a good year! We enrolled her in a local church's program rather than the county's Pre-K. It looks like they will be learning lots of phonics, which makes mommy and daddy happy. The school system uses more of a "whole language" approach which I'm not crazy about. We've been doing phonics at home, and MB is already reading some easy words. With any luck, she'll start actual kindergarten already reading. On Monday afternoons, we'll be going into Savannah so that she can study ballet - real ballet. She's very excited.

Mommy is also starting her year with 26 piano students on the roll. Several of these are homeschoolers who come in the mornings while MB's in school, and the rest will come on Tues. - Thurs. afternoons. I'm fortunate to have some older students who come in the afternoons to play with MB while I teach.

I don't have a regular church job this year, although I'm getting frequent calls to sub as an organist. I just finished playing two Sundays at this beautiful and historic Episcopal church in Savannah while their choir enjoyed a week in residence here. I enjoyed playing their large Wicks organ. There are quite a few benefits to subbing - you can recycle prelude and postlude music endlessly, you can keep some weekends free, you get to meet lots of nice people, and you get to play lots of organs! Not to mention, I'm free to put most of my attention on my students without the added work of planning music for the services and choir.

It feels funny to start the school year with temps in the 100s, but hot as it is, tomorrow's the day!