First Impressions of Preschool

On September 10th, Wyeth went to school! This is his first experience being away from home without his Dad or his Mom! Big stuff! (Ok, he was in child care for six months but that ended when he was 9 months old). 

The entire summer, we talked up school. He wasn't buying it. Everytime we'd say something about the school or his teacher or his friend that we knew would attend he would say, "Well, that's a problem. I'm not going to school."

I started to get a little concern as his mantra continued. "That's a problem, I'm not going to school."

Enter big sister into the picture. She should be in sales. She SOLD him preschool. One afternoon, she ran upstairs and came back downstairs with her memory books from her first two years in the school. She showed him picture after picture of her having fun. She showed him pictures of her sledding. Of her having fun on water days. Of her in costume. It began to change his whole mind. A smile showed up.

And then she went in for the closing.

"And ya know what, buddy? They have snacks there! Goldfish, pretzels and all sorts of good snacks. And cupcakes when it is someone's birthday."

Sold.

Preschool here he comes!

Of course it wasn't quite that easy. He was still nervous. But the big day came and he was very brave. He had seen the classroom before during the welcome day and that made a huge difference. He hugged us hard and then followed the teacher out the door of our car. No looking back.

I was so proud.

Now, a full week in, he has funny things to share about how school is going. I write them down verbatim becuase it always cracks me up.

"I shared Webbie. They liked him. Then I put hiim in my bag and stuck him in my cubbie."

"In school today I cried a little bit about the potty. I didn't tell them why but it was a little sad. But then I got a doughnut. A real life doughnut. With sprinkles. And I could hold it on the sides because there weren't any sprinkles on the side. I ate it all up."

"I got a new job today. I now do the weather job."

We are curious about how he is interacting with kids. Tuesday of this week he reported that he didn't talk to anyone. We pushed him a bit. He told us he didn't talk because he didn't know anyone's name. We gave him some 'scripts'. "Hi, I'm Wyeth. What is your name, do you want to play?"  We pushed too hard and this backfired on us. Last night after we put him down, he was crying about going to school and feeling like he HAD to say hi. So we dropped it.

Today he reported, "Someone asked me to be her friend. I said no. Then I said yes. So now we are friends."

I kinda want to be three.