Celebrating Graduation!

Graduation is always bittersweet! We are celebrating the success of those children who are now ready to move on to kindergarten. They will face the challenges of embracing a large group of new friends with the ability and skill to absorb expanded areas of information and a social world that is broader than their current experiences.

It is rare, but this year we have only one graduate. He exemplifies everything that is critical in terms of the skills and personal maturity level that will ensure he transitions and is successful in kindergarten.

He has become a leader, confident in his ability to accomplish challenging tasks. He has increased his concentration and focus, and frequently displayed a level of maturity we have not seen. He is a skilled soccer player and yet yesterday, he lovingly played one on one with a twenty month old child, adapting his approach to her level and allowing her to succeed.

His personal challenge is still to better control his physical reaction to competition. He often overacts. He is conscious of it and we have seen some improvement.

Every year we find it difficult to have our older children leave. But it is heartwarming and rewarding that they are ready for the bigger challenges they will face.

I firmly believe that a family daycare is the most advantageous for the first five years. Each child is living with eleven other children that they will be required to get to know and develop the skills to get along with. Children are drawn to each other by interest and will be interacting with others who may have more or less knowledge than they do at any time. They may be a partner, teacher, student, and best of all, leader.

They know it will be a lot of work going forward but they have climbed that mountain many times and display the confidence and perseverance to reach the top.

We will miss his everyday energy, contributions and accomplishments!

Good luck!