He started school in August 2012. After the teacher I had planned to chose left before school started, I decided to go with a brand new, first year teacher hoping that her freshness and newness would be a bigger factor than inexperience.
I could not have made a better choice. His teacher just loved him and treated him (and all of his classmates) just like they were her own children. When he started having some medical issues she was concerned and when we were admitted to the hospital she came to see him, bringing her husband and some toys. To this day, he still talks about her husband coming to see him.
He finished pre-k, started kindergarten, and after much soul searching I started him in Kindergarten in the fall. He was still 4 at the start of school. We thought he was ready. After daily notes home and a few calls from his teacher, we decided he wasn't ready in the end. He was struggling with some of the basic skills, but more than that he wasn't emotionally/behaviorally ready to sit in a class and focus on what he needed to do without the play time and the naps.
I was kind of worried about sending him back to pre-k and worried that his teacher might have been sick of him. When I text her what I had decided, she said "You're putting him in my class right?" Instant relief. His second year of pre-k has been great. He's dying to know how to read, he's so interested in learning.
The impact this teacher has had on our lives has been monumental and I will be forever grateful.
