Our Inspired Journey

Pre-school days have come to an end for this school year :) I was SO thankful to get to spend the second to last day with Ryder in his class, and it was a good one...WATER DAY!!! Enjoy the pictures of Ryder and his friends having a blast on a HOT day as they end their memory making together for the year...

...the jumping pool!

Pre-school teachers are so smart...one pool was for jumping and one for sitting :)

Here is Ryder's whole class (minus one) in the sitting pool for one last picture!

to BOTH his teachers :)

As I look over these pictures, I am reminded of how much our oldest boy has grown this year. He began as the youngest in the class (still is, of course) but made friends with kids almost a year older than him, and has developed an imagination like I never imagined my boy could have. Since his teachers have the class set up for them to learn through exploring, he has learned how to be more self-guided in his play. As a former teacher, my inclination was always to set up great opportunities to learn but they were always initiated by ME! It's been such an eye-opening experience for me as a parent, to learn how to set-up opportunities for my kids to learn and explore through our house and let THEM guide play time. I've also learned that they have MUCH better ideas then I could ever come up with!!!

The last day I was with Ryder at school, he and his friends talked for a half hour with clipboards and pencils in hand, discussing how to solve the problem of the "broken boat dock." Their boat-dock, (rows of big wooden blocks), set up next to the water (blue table cloth) was breaking apart. One of them suggested that they scuba dive under the water to see if there were any animals breaking the dock from underneath. They all grabbed clip boards, pencils and paper and drew diagrams of the dock and water below...then, with arrows they drew, they each had a different idea of how to scuba dive under the dock, checking for whatever was breaking their dock.

After 20 minutes, I said, "Okay, guys! Let's do it! Who's going to scuba dive first!?"...I was thinking they needed a little motivation to get from the planning stage to the diving stage!

"NO!" they all cried. We are still talking about how it's going to work!

What a clear reminder that was to me, that the process of getting there, is more important than the final destination. God reminded me of this truth AGAIN, and this time he used pre-schoolers to get my attention and re-align my thinking with HIS. Our house is different now that Ryder has gone to pre-school this year. The boys wake up in the morning and rush out to play with their toys...they are filling their trucks with cars, taking them from one place to another...their play kitchen sink is transformed into an airport and the oven a garage...their drawings on our white board are detailed and precious to them. I LOVE the way they buzz around, minds FULL of imagination and creativity finding something new at every turn.

This recent quote from Ryder sums it up perfectly...I was asking him to clean up more quickly before bed one night, since every time he started to put something away, he'd start playing with it again. (Again, VERY focused on getting to the end result of a clean house!) He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I'm just so creative, that every time I try to clean up, my brain just gets another idea and I have to play again!"

Thank-you Little Lamb pre-school, for giving Ryder a place to explore and learn about the amazing creative mind God gave him! Thank you, Gramma and Gramps for making it possible that he is there...and thank you to Ryder's teachers, who have changed the way I parent my kids. I'm so thankful for the chance to learn more of what it means to be a mom to 3, almost 4 beautiful children of God :) And the best part...we'll do it all again next year! Ryder can't wait to be back in the Fall for one more year of pre-school before starting Kindergarten once he turns 6. Thank you, Jesus for a place for our boy! What an amazing year!