Who knew that enrolling your child in preschool required practically as much paperwork as buying a house!

Maya will be starting preschool in August when the new school year begins.  The school district we live in has an amazing preschool program and we had her added to the wait list last fall for the half day program hoping for 2 or 3 days a week.  While we were in Australia we got the call that a spot had opened up for her in the new school year.  After a little interesting phone tag across very different time zones and finally an email exchange I was able to secure her spot in a two day a week half day program.  The assistant principle said they would mail the paperwork to our house and set the due date for 2 after my return to the US so I didn’t have to worry about it until I got back.

I returned home to a mountain of mail, one of which being a very thick envelope from the school district that I knew contained the enrollment paperwork.  I figured it was a few forms and the handbook.  It never dawned on me that majority of the thickness of the envelope was the paperwork I would need to fill out and the handbook took up a mere 10 pages.  The amount of paperwork I have had to complete the last couple of weeks just to get my daughter enrolled in a preschool program is seriously ridiculous.  I feel like I’m signing over my life, similar to how I felt when I was filling out paperwork to buy our house! I’ve been buried in a mountain of preschool enrollment paperwork for 2 weeks now and finally dug myself out. After much running around to get the necessary documentation to prove I live where I said I lived and to get all the medical forms (4 of them) completed by Maya’s pediatrician, and lots and lots of time spent sitting at our desk filling out form after form and signing permission slip after permission slip I am finally done.

Today I had a meeting with the assistant principle to drop off my mountain of paperwork, get a tour of the school and talk about our expectation for next year. Can I just say I love this school. The preschool is currently in summer classes and camps mode. It was nice to get to see some of the teachers in action and see how comfortable the kids are in the environment and how much there is for them to do. The school is adorable but also very well stocked in the necessities of early childhood learning, including some pretty fantastic tech gear like an interactive activity station that allows kids to use their bodies and movements to learn things like reading and math skills. The program seems to offer everything I was hoping for.

I’m excited for Maya to start preschool. She is definitely ready for this next big step in her life.  The program is very child led so her learning will be broad and based on what she is ready to learn and wants to learn while being guided by the teacher.  I can’t wait to see how she changes and grows from the program. That being said it seriously freaks me out that my baby is already old enough to be in school. Who told her she could grow up so quickly!