Eric and I decided to look around for a good Pre-K program for Colton
this year. We wanted to make sure that he was ready for Kindergarten
(!!) in a year, so the search started. We only wanted him to go three
days a week, because if you ask me, he'll be in school for the next 16+
years, no need to start at 4.
The choice came down to two excellent
institutions that were both highly recommended. Challenger and
Merryhill schools. If you live in Vegas, you know that both schools are
excellent and either would've worked for our situation. But, when it
came down to it, we decided on Merryhill. As awesome as Challenger is,
it focuses mainly on academics, whereas Merryhill was built around the
play and learn concept. Colton is a shy boy (although he is getting
better) and needs more socialization than academics at this point. He
is already pretty smart (if I do say so) and has many skills that
incoming kindergartners would need. We worried more about the
socialization of his education. Merryhill is spent not only learning,
but learning through play.
We chose to do a "Discovery Day" where
he could go for a full day and check things out. If he liked it, then
great and he would start the next week. "Discovery Day" was a success
and Colton's first official day was August 26th. Merryhill is a uniform
school, and Colton loves being able to wear his "Merryhill" shirt and
tell people that he goes there.
The first few days were rough on me.
I'd drop him off and he would start to cry and beg me to sit with him
and play. I would stay for a couple of minutes and then leave. His
teachers (yes, he has two full time teachers) would tell us that he was
just fine once we left, but if you've ever left a crying child, you know
how hard that can be. We are now in the fifth week of school and
Colton is happy to kiss us goodbye and start playing with no crying! We
also enrolled him in Karate/Gymnastic classes that he takes every
Monday after school (another great incentive for Merryhill - lots of
extracurricular activities are offered). Colton has already come out of
his shell a little and Eric and I are very pleased with his love of
school so far. Enjoy!
Excited for his first day.
Standing in front of his school.
Here are some examples of his work at school. One of the things that I
love that Merryhill does is with every piece of work that comes home
there is a paper that describes the activity and links to what
subjects.
Colton dictated to his teacher what was happening in this picture. Pretty funny.
Another piece of work.
Another great thing that Merryhill does is they take pictures of the kids doing certain activities. Here, Colton was in art and as they learned about an artist, they took a picture to go along with his painting.
Here is an example of the Activity Descriptor and a picture to go along with the activity.
Practicing writing his name.
Skateboard painting, plus a picture of Colton on the skateboard doing this project.
