Sometimes Things are Better Than You Could Ever Hope For

Like most moms I have a soul deep desire to be the absolute best mom I can be.

I had so much fun having Alison at home with me for the past 3 years but she simply outgrew being at home with mom all day, especially when Ethan was born. I couldn't just sit down with her like before and dedicate my undivided attention. I would get her started on something but then had to leave to take care of Ethan. I'm sure it comes as no surprise this was not acceptable to Alison.

She needed more. She needed more time outside. More time playing with other kids, more structure, more learning, more more more! More than what I could give her at home. She started seeing/hearing about other kids going to school and she wanted to go to school too, so we decided to give it a go!

Alison has been in daycare a couple months now and it's been a blessing.

At first I felt like a failure for not being able to meet all her needs, and it took a little while to get over that, but she gets so much more at daycare. More of the quality things that I want for her. Things like friendships, language learning (Japanese), going on walks, playing outside, learning, coloring/art. She has become braver since starting school as well. She will go down slides, touch glue and other sticky things, she is doing so well I wish I would have put her in daycare sooner! Granted this daycare is special. It's next to the ocean so they get to walk along the beach everyday and during the summer they don their bathing suits and play in the sand and water. They explore the area of town near the daycare and spend a lot of time outside (yesterday they went picnicking!). It's run by Japanese people and so Alison is getting exposure to a new culture (most of the kids are American). We are thinking it might be a good thing for Ethan too, but I want to wait till he is at least walking. But I have to admit the idea of having time to myself to work on my business and my hobbies and run errands without also caring for kids is very appealing. Daycare is really so much better than what I thought it was going to be. I had this idea in my head that it would stifle Alison and the opposite has happened, she seems to have really bloomed into a young child.

This is the inside of the daycare. It's a small school and has less than 30 children total.

Their teacher, Chris Sensai, has them doing exercises together where the kids stomp their feet, march and so all sorts of things to get their bodies moving.

Alison seems to like going on their little "field trips"

All these pictures were taken by Alison's teachers and  her main teacher Takako shares them with the parents so we get to see what the kids are up to during the day! I love it!!