2011-2012 school year

Tuesday was Anya's first day of school for the year.  It is the third time she has stood on our steps and posed for a "First Day Photo," which is a tradition around here.  Back in the days when Will and I were teachers, we would take First Day Photos of each other, and I never looked quite as chipper as Anya does here.

She has grown up so much since that first photo two years ago.  She was not yet three, which seemed very young to be starting school.  It still seems that way to me, but she thrived that first year.  Her second year of school was intertwined with health issues and vision loss.

She began the year at our neighborhood school just like the previous year, but within a month we had learned of her permanent vision loss in her right eye.  With that came the referral to the Anchor Center, which was too amazing of a place to pass by.  Suddenly, after just turning four, Anya was at one or the other of her two schools every day of the week.  Again, I thought that she seemed too young for that.  School every day plus frequent trips the hospital and doctors' offices proved to be a bit trying for our whole family.  Anya started asking not to go to school and she was often wiped out by week's end.

For this year, Will and I made the decision to wait a year on kindergarten.  On top of that, we felt that she would be better served going to just one preschool and therefore allowing time in her schedule to play with friends, take swimming lessons, go to the park more, and just have more time to be a kid.  She has the rest of her life to be in school, right?  Plus, Reese and I want to see her more.  There were many contributing factors to help us reach our decision, it took us a long time to figure it out, but once we did I was content with what we came up with.

The doubts are creeping in a bit now that school is starting for our local school, and all of Anya's neighborhood friends are starting kindergarten.  She has not seemed to mind, at least not yet.  She has Anchor and she does love it there.  They have much to teach her and help her with, and I hope that one more year there will be the best thing for her.  I suppose that parenthood is always full of doubts such as these.  There is no roadmap to guide us down these twists and turns, because no one has been on these roads before.