My little boy is in PRE-KINDERGARTEN. Do you know what that means? That means it's the year before Kindergarten. I can't grasp it yet.
So Owen was in the "2's" program at his preschool last year and was the oldest in his class. This year, he skipped the "3's" program and started in Pre-K. Only one of his friends from last year is in his class again this year. He is also now the youngest in his class. Pre-K is definitely much more structured, it's 4 days a week vs 2, it's 30 minutes longer and it's in the afternoons vs the morning. All reasons I wondered if I was making the right choice for him. As usual, he made it extremely easy for me.
We have been talking about school all week and he's been very excited about it. Last year, anytime I mentioned school he usually responded with, "I don't want to go to school." So I took that as a good sign. A couple days ago we worked on his first homework together! Teacher Marion sent it in the mail...Half a heart that she told him to decorate (and she would have the other half waiting for him at school) and an "About Me" page that he would dictate the answers to and I would write them down. I told him we were playing a game called Kindergarten and he got really into it. Last night I told him that today would be school and he smiled. Today, we all went out to lunch as sort of a celebratory meal before school. Owen told me he'd rather just go to school and skip lunch. I took that as another good sign. Once we said goodbye to Steve and Adam and started driving to school, Owen finally asked the question I was waiting for and trying to avoid. Here is how the conversation went.
Mom, are you going to leave me at school?
Yes, Bubba...remember last year? I stay for 5 minutes and then I come and pick you up after school.
Well, I don't want you to leave me. When you say you are going to leave, I'm going to say Don't Leave!
Hmmmm...Well, what am I going to say after that?
You are going to say, "But Bubba, I have to leave."
You're right!
Ok Mom.
Then we had a long discussion about how some kids might be sad and that it was his job to help them not feel sad. He actually led most of the conversation telling me how these kids get sad because they don't know their moms are coming back later. I couldn't believe how matter-of-fact he was talking about it.
We get to school and he walked by himself, wasn't nervous, let me take his picture, put his backpack in the right place, picked up his name tag (no photos on either this year -- he found by written name only) went potty, etc...Then when it was time to go into the actual classroom he bolted in never really looking back. The kids there this year were HUGE! I've never seen Owen as the youngest kid in a class before. All the parents were talking about how much each of the kids had grown over the summer and I was like, HELLO??? Owen was in a group of kids a whole year younger - so these kids look like GIANTS! Also, there are 16 kids in his class (vs 12 last year) and 3 teachers vs 2. So the room just seemed very full! I hope he stays as tall as he is now. My mom wasn't joking when she said everyone looks way bigger than her August birthday son!
The room this year was different in that there were lots more activities out for the kids. Manipulations that were not available to them last year for whatever reason (choking? too difficult?) and Owen really liked that. He was bouncing around the room checking everything out. I really think he missed school. Home can be so boring sometimes and especially in the afternoons when Adam is napping -- he's just bored!
After about 5 minutes, I left. He protested a bit but only in a "watch me do this rubber band trick one more time...no one more time...no one more time." I'm not sure if he didn't want me to leave or if he just wanted me to stay in order to watch him. But I left, and there were no tears. There actually wasn't really any crying except for the little girl who was in his class last year. That was another change. Last year, it was a symphony of crying. This year, only one.
When I picked him up, I came early and watched him a bit in on the playground (Um, those kids are HUGE!) and tried to peek in the class during their last activity, show and tell. Owen was sitting in a very difficult spot for me to spy on but I did see him sitting and paying attention.
When class was over, he came out beaming. I snuck in to ask his teacher how he did. She said he did great and that he was age appropriately adjusting to the beginning of a more structured class. She said he was very verbal and that helps him be more appropriate when he's having a hard time. She said the two examples were when he didn't want to transition right away from one activity to another and she gave him a choice of 5 minutes or 6 minutes and then he did fine...And at circle, he got a little wiggly and told her, "Teacher Marion, can you hurry circle time because I want to get up and play!" She said she appreciated how he calmly told her what he wanted and she was able to talk to him about what was going to happen next. I also met a parent of one of his classmates who told me she had noticed me at Parent Orientation last week when I said my child was skipping the 3's class. She said she "could never have imagined" her child skipping over the 3's class but when she met Owen today and he introduced himself and chatted with her a bit she realized why it made sense. Phew. Mommy anxiety was calmed a little bit after hearing all that!
Logically though, hello...we're talking about 3 hours of preschool here. There is no part of me that thinks Owen isn't ready for that - regardless of structure. The kid loves being around his "friends" he loves having a ton of different activities to do and he loves learning AND he did great last year! So it's not like I skipped grade school and started him directly in Harvard. But still, when it's outside the norm even a little bit - I have to worry!
After school, we went to the store to buy yogurt covered raisins and tic tacs as a reward for a successful first day. He told me a little bit about his day (he was not a fan last year of telling me anything about his day at school - I always had to trick him with weird questions to get any info out of him.) This time, he was a little more forthcoming. He told me that they did art, he liked Teacher Marion and Teacher Gretchen (he had a hard time pronouncing Gretchen until we practiced at the store -- "green...Gretchen...green...Gretchen.") He said he wanted Logan's toy but Logan didn't want to give it to him so Teacher Gretchen said that he could play with it and when he was done, he could give it to Owen. He also told me that Ellie was crying at the beginning, "But Mom, I didn't go over and make her feel better because Teacher Gretchen was already helping her."
And the most telling thing...the rest of the day he was happy as a clam. Happy, happy, happy, happy. The day must have been pretty fun!
This year should be an interesting and fun one. I can't wait to see what comes of it. I know they are doing a festival of lights presentation, I know they are making volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar and I know there will be a real deal preschool graduation at the end of the year. Get ready to watch Laura cry pretty much all year long. This is all happening WAY too fast.
