First Day of Preschool
Posted By Jill on September 9, 2011
Yep, you read that right. Little Mac started school today. Only two half-days a week, but he’s in the school where we hope he’ll be for the next – count’em – 11 years! He had a great day!
He really couldn’t wait to go to “train preschool.” We’ve been in the room maybe twice – once at preschool round-up and once for back-to-school night. He only remembers playing with trains and has wanted to go back ever since. On Tuesday when we started using little signs I had made to help him to know what he’d be doing each day when I went back to work, Jeremy said he looked at them all and put the preschool one out and said he wanted to go to preschool that day. How disappointing to learn he had to wait three more days!
But today was the day. We all got up early, got dressed and fed, and headed out to school.
Mac carried his own backpack, found his own name on his cubby, and hung up his backpack there.
We arrived early, but he could hardly wait to get in that room. Jeremy was trying desperately to get a picture of him walking in the room, but instead he was pulling us – c’mon, c’mon!
We played for a little while, waited for another little boy’s crying to stop, and then it was time to say good-bye. We got hugs and kisses, and away we went. I’m not even sure if he would have noticed we were leaving if not for saying good-bye! I worked at that campus for the morning, totally selfishly, so I could peak in on him and see what he was doing. Not how he was doing - I knew he’d be fine, and I really don’t want him to understand yet that I work there, because in reality I won’t always be at that building while he’s there, as much as I’d like to. And it wasn’t nearly as hard for me as one might have expected. In fact, since I’m used to having to leave him to go to work, it was almost a better situation to know I could look in and see what he was up to – I LOVE to watch him play and learn and have not gotten to do that before. I peeked in once, and they were playing with play-doh, and later he was having snack.
When Lisa picked him and her daughter up, with Vivian in tow, they proceeded to the lunch room where she volunteered to work hot lunch on Fridays. Apparently all the kids ate well (once they found a good seating arrangement for Vivian), then they headed back home for naptime. That didn’t go as well, but Mac did finally fall asleep right about the time I got home, and Vivian fell asleep after another couple of hours. What a day!! He slept over two hours, pretty normal, but I went to check on him when he woke up, and he wasn’t ready to get up – he spent almost another HOUR in his bed. I think the day might have caught up with him!
I asked Mac a few times what he did in preschool. He seems to remember things in spurts, so you can’t just ask him once. At one point he told me he needed Thomas and James and Percy – I gather he either wanted them and they didn’t have them out today, or another kid was playing with them and he didn’t have a turn, not sure. Then he said he painted. I asked, with a brush? ”No, with my hand, I pushed the paint.” Interesting. And I asked about snack time – milk, water, raisins and goldfish. Yum! I asked if they read any books. He said yes, then he started telling me this story… He was so animated! He said it was about a pink elephant pig. Hmmm, really?! Yes, and “what happened to his NOSE?! It went CRASH into a tree, and it SQUEEZED <something else about the tree>.” All with hand gestures. I was almost laughing but so enjoying watching him relive this story. I couldn’t imagine such a book. A pink elephant pig? I’m not a reader, my friends, but that seemed kinda silly. So if you know me, where did I go… Google. And sure enough, after a few searches (pink elephant pig nose, elephant pig children’s book…), “nose pig children’s book” brought me to my answer. Here’s the book his teacher read at preschool today:
I showed him the picture, and he said yes, his teacher read that book. ”Mommy, you read it?” Hmmm, had to explain that what we were looking at was just a picture, not the book. ”Mommy, you read picture?” Sorry, honey… I can’t wait to read that book next week – you can bet I’m stopping in for a look!
I LOVE that he can tell me what he did in school. I LOVE that he had a great day! I sure hope he wants to go back on Monday. What do you think?
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