All About Kids

This past week was Brady's spring break. Most kids would probably want to just stay home, but when we asked her if she wanted to go to All About Kids that week, we got an emphatic "YES!" as a response.

All About Kids is a day care facility that we had been taking Brady to since she was about a year old. We wanted her to go to day care for two reasons. First, as Phil mentioned a few weeks back, it's tough to raise a child when your family is far away (in our case, both of our families are in Upstate NY, while we live in Utah). It was doubly tough when there'd be no one I could ask to watch the baby, so I could at least try to get a comic done on time.

More important than that, though, is the simple fact that Brady is going to be our only child. This is by choice; we have no desire to have more than one child (hell, some family members were stunned we were having one at all!). The problem with that choice was that she would have no other siblings to interact with. Since we wanted her to have the chance to be around other kids, we looked into day care.

We looked into a couple of different home-based day care places, but those seemed to be more of a "mass babysitting" kind of thing. Add to that the simple fact that Brady hated being there, and we realized that simply wasn't going to work for her, or for us.

Enter All About Kids. Unlike the home-based day cares, this placed was structured much like a school, with each age group separated out like classrooms, set times for activities, lunch, and so on, and teachers. Which meant in addition to Brady having the opportunity to hang out with friends, she would also learn. And while Brady was upset at first (separation anxiety is a bitch), she (in short order) got to the point where she wanted to spend all day there.

And why not? It was fun! She got to play with kids her age. She got to play dress-up. she got to play with all kinds of toys. She had teachers that she loved to be with (and who loved to have her jubulant energy around). She got to play outside on the playground.

And through this, she also learned her numbers and letters. She learned some basic math. She discovered all kinds of arts, crafts, and music. Most importantly, she was exposed to more experiences than what just Stacey and myself could provide. Her world was expanded, and that's always a good thing.

I really feel that her time at All About Kids helped her immensely when she started Kindergarten. Unlike some other kids who were just starting out at school, she already knew the routine. She had a leg up on letters and numbers. She picked up on reading comprehension pretty quickly. She was used to being around kids (unlike some who only knew their brothers and/or sisters.). And, because she was already accustomed to going to AAK, she didn't suffer from the separation anxiety that we saw other kids (and their parents) experience.

It was a natural progression from AAK to elementary school.

Now in First Grade, she doesn't have to go to AAK (technically, it's for kids up to age 5), but she still goes back every so often. Now, in addition to playing and having fun, she's become a "big sister" to some of the younger kids there.

She's even said to us (among the hundreds of things she's said she wants to be when she grows up) that she'd like to be a day care teacher at All About Kids.

That's certainly one way to pay it forward.