love letters

Dear Miss T & Miss S,

I can’t believe it’s Em’s last day! It’s a bittersweet moment for us. It’s exciting & amazing because she’s hit a big milestone. She’s done so much growing & learning during her time at school, & she’s moving up. At the same time, we can’t help but feel a little bummed out that she’s moving on without the two of you. You’re the only very first teachers she’ll ever have, & you’ve set an incredibly high bar for every teacher she has in the future.

You two have, in a sense, become a part of our family. You were there to dry Em’s tears on her very first day of school. You were there to rub her back & check her temperature when she was suffering through chronic ear infections. You read her stories & sang her songs (which she then preciously sings in the car…love it!). You helped all of us through potty training (If for nothing else, we will never forget you for that). Brian told me last night that for the longest time he had a fear that Em would enter kindergarten without being fully potty trained. He told me what a relief he felt leaving Em with the two of you during the days when we were in full potty training mode, because he knew the two of you “were on it.”

You know Em better than almost anyone else. You know when she’s coming down with a sickness & when she hasn’t had enough sleep. You know when she needs a hug. You knew when she was ready to spell her name or her hair was long enough for pigtails or she could drink without a cover on her cup (remember the cup shaking?).

Our daughter has learned & grown & thrived under your loving care. We love the sweet stories she tells us about what she’s learned & what she did during her day. Sometimes the stories make us laugh. Sometimes they are so sweet they bring tears to our eyes. Sometimes her stories cause us to check out Amazon (we learned about her love of Magna-Tiles, My Little Pony’s, sit and bounce balls, & Pete the Cat through you).

When I asked Em her favorite thing about you, she said, “I just love singing to her.” Then she said to tell you that she “loves you & misses you.”

We are in constant awe of everything you do. You teach & guide & love a whole classroom of 18 month-3 year olds with such patience & laughter & love. We have a hard enough time doing that with one child. All the while you’re also lesson planning, birthday poster making, calendar coloring, & cleaning. We’re both in awe & exhausted just thinking about it. There’s also the little things you do for & with the kids. It’s the way you are with them, knowing what each one needs individually, that makes such an impact & such a difference everyday. We’re going to struggle to not compare you to Em’s future teachers, because we know that no else could measure up. Is there a place to nominate you for teacher of the year?

So, one last time, we wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you! We hope to keep in touch so that Em can give her very first teacher’s, the best teachers, big hugs. Merry Christmas to you & your family. Happy New Year. We wish & pray for you the best of everything in 2013 & beyond.

We love you,

Em, Julie, & Brian

Here are our past letters: December 2011 & May 2012