Back to School Time: Changes for the Girls

And finally, in my Back to School Time series, the girls have a few changes over at daycare.

Katie is now in the VPK program to promote school readiness. This is a free program through the state, but we still have to pay a fee for before/after care since she spends all day at the center. An added benefit for Katie is that she has the same teacher and many of the same friends in her class. Essentially, there's not much of a change between what she was already doing in pre-school and what she'll be doing in VPK. They do pick up a few more educational activities to make sure the kids are ready for school, but there is still plenty of playtime and recess, so I doubt she'll notice a difference. Can you believe she'll go to kindergarten next year?!?!!

Natalie got moved up to the 2-year-old room at the center. She still has almost 2 months until her birthday, but they asked if they could move her early, and we said yes! Natalie has several friends that turned 2 in July, and since there was still one more slot in the 2-yr-old room available, they felt she was a natural fit for it. We were so excited that she gets to stay with her friends, make some new friends, and experience new challenges as she interacts with slightly older kids. We're very proud of our big little girl!

So, both girls are taking on new challenges, and we're looking forward to seeing how it goes. The major benefit that Colin and I are seeing, starting today, is that overall weekly tuition is reduced by about $40 since the girls each made a change that resulted in a cost decrease. Think about it... $40/wk x how many weeks...? Yeah. That's a big plus. :)