All the right moves

We found out on Monday that after 18 years, our beloved daycare is closing. The owner opened the daycare 18 years ago after his wife died of cancer to honor her memory and dream of owning a day care. He is the sweetest man, and in fact, Tyson calls the daycare "Alan's House". It's a big old Grange building with partitions for a toddler area, preschool area, big kid area, and the old stage is the eating area. There are two play areas: one big outdoor play area and one covered areas with a a few outdoor games as well. And the rotation of toys is amazing! I will never forget the day I came in and saw about a dozen Mr. Potato heads on a table and little kids just giddy over the funny faces they were making with the zillion parts.

Kacie has gone there since she was 2 years 10 months old. Tyson has gone there since November. We had already decided Tyson would go to a new daycare next year because he is in developmental preschool, and we live outside of town, so he had a 20 minute bus ride each way. Ty loves the bus, but he doesn't handle transitions very well. His new daycare is in the same building as his preschool, so fewer transitions. He will have to get to know the new people in the daycare, but they all share the same outside play areas and play in the same gymnasium.

So now back to Kacie. In Kindergarten, she went to school where I teach and I took her everyday. It was challenging and a bit difficult, as she was 5 and couldn't exactly watch herself well during staff meetings. 1/2 days were also a struggle. So for the last three years, she has gone to our neighborhood school and used the daycare for before and after school on the days Dan is working (Dan works a strange schedule). Well, with no daycare....

I thought of all the people who could help me...but then I thought, do I really want to burden other people? and with Dan's rotating days off and shifts, how would it work? So Dan and I talked about it, and it was truly just too much for me to coordinate.

We made the decision to bring Kacie back to my school. She will be in 4th grade next year, and she can handle herself after school in my room now, and there are other staff kids there too. Our hurdle was always living outside of town. It has always been the plan that she would come back with me for 5-6th grade, so it just happened a year earlier. Kacie is not thrilled, but she will be fine. I am thrilled though! I get to see my little girl in the halls again. I think I will be really happy with her with me.

Tyson has occupied a lot of my time this year, and I know she has felt like she has shouldered a lot of responsibility with him, including as we transitioned him to daycare. Now, they will be separate, and I think they are both ready for that.

These were hard moves, but I think they are the right moves to make. I will be teaching 6th grade again, and I cannot tell you how excited I am for school next year! In the meantime, this is the first morning of summer vacation, and Tyson just unscrewed Kacie's toothpaste and ate it. Welcome summer!

No new pics, but this is one from a few weeks ago. Dan's brother Gregg built this go kart himself. The kids thought it was pretty sweet!