After much anticipation and excitement (for us and for James!), James started preschool this week. This is his very first experience of being away from home and from me for a regular amount of time every day so it was definitely a milestone.
The night before James was really excited and we talked for a long time about what school rules there might be. I was very surprised at his suggestions! He came up with "No making noises, no slamming the doors, no bringing toys or stuffed animals from home". We would make some other suggestions about being kind to his friends, raising his hand when he wanted to say something, and things like that. Every time we made a suggestion, he would start nodding vigorously and say, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, I know that."
The first day was a little overwhelming with all the kids and parents and trying to figure out where everyone was supposed to be. James wasn't upset, but he didn't quite have a happy face either. He was reserving his judgement, I think.
He was really happy to see us when we picked him up a few hours later and throughout the day he would offer up little tidbits about what he did or what they talked about. He said they read "If you take a Mouse to School", which is a book we have at home and he was excited that he knew the book.
The next few days didn't go as smoothly. The second day he was clingy, not wanting me to go and said that his stomach hurt and that he didn't want to be at school. He said it was "boring" and "too long". I stayed with him for awhile before leaving and had a talk with him about how it is part of his job now to go to school, just like Daddy goes to work every day. He didn't seem to think that was a great system :)
His teacher is very kind and patient and perfect for him. She is a former Kindergarten teacher that is taking some time off to get her Doctorate and he looooooves her. They had an ice cream social open house where we got to see more of his classrooms and where he spends the day. He surprised me by running up to both of his teachers multiple times and giving them hugs. He was so excited to see them! He is not a huggy kid, especially with relatively new people so I am definitely impressed.
He was so excited, he was jumping up and down so he is blurry, but look at that happy face!
They have a bulletin board up with pictures of all the children in his class. Someone was trying not to smile when they took his picture...
Rett played happily with these toy animals they had out, making sure each one was standing up straight. Seriously this kid can be so calm and easily entertained.
Afterwards they wanted to play on the playground for awhile and James especially wanted to try out the little kids playground that he doesn't usually get to play in. They have this awesome see-saw but it goes much higher than I expected! James was loving it of course :)
Rett tried out the baby see-saw. Dang this kid is cute!
These pictures aren't school related but I wanted to put them up. This is a really neat duck nest that is in the bushes outside of church. All of the kids loved checking it out Sunday and I hope we get to see ducklings soon!
Anthony's coworkers have been requesting some of my homemade mint chocolate chip cookies, so James helped me bake some. He was all into it! He got out his toy mixer and helped me mix, cracked the eggs, poured the ingredients, opened the oven, etc... We had a lot of fun!
1 comment:
OH yay!! How exciting!!! That sounds a lot like Teya when she started preschool. The first few days (or week or two? I can't remember) went really well, but then she decided she didn't want to go anymore and would burst into tears and ball her eyes out when I would drop her off. The teacher was so great with her and always said she stopped crying when I left. I remember meeting up with my friend Kelli right after dropping her off one day and I was kind of worried about her, and Kelli told me that when she had been a preschool teacher, the only kids that would cry and didn't get used to it, were the ones who's parents would come back to comfort the kids. That's pretty much what got me through it. I think it only lasted a week or two for Teya. Now if only that same approach would work for Nursery!!! (Nolan still won't go to nursery, please share if you have any tips!)!!! How is James doing now? That's so awesome that he loves his teacher so much! And the hugs are really impressive! Yay for awesome teachers!! And your so lucky to have that free preschool in FL!! Although, it IS long for a first experience away from home, isn't it?!?! I remember being really worried about that when Teya started. And I say you and James make us some of those cookies while you're here! :)
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