He's in afternoon Pre-K. He's seemed ready as we've talked about it. And they had an open house on Friday for the kids to see the classroom and meet their teachers. And one of his teachers visited our home Monday. So he was prepared. From what they told me when he was accepted into the program, it could have been a class of 20-25 kids, but there's just 14 of them, so that's nice. There's 2 teachers plus a para teacher that are there regularly, and specialists that come once or twice a week.
We had a low-key morning. Played inside and outside. We had an early lunch because I didn't want to end up rushing him to be ready for the bus, but we had plenty of time so maybe it was a bit too early.
Once we were ready I gave him a red Happy Rock (from a pack of them I bought probably 20 years ago) and told him I'd be thinking about him all day and he could keep it in his pocket and he could feel it there to remind him. He put it in his pocket and seemed to appreciate it. But then I told him how the smile would gradually rub off onto him and help him smile and be happy - and he took it right out of his pocket and held it. I said he needed to keep it in his pocket so he wouldn't lose it but he said he didn't want the smile to rub off. After assurances that we could draw it back on, he put it back in his pocket.
We did sidewalk chalk while waiting for the bus.
And took pictures. I told him we'd take pictures of him in his backpack while outside waiting for the bus, so he made sure the backpack was featured too.
Naturally little brother also got a turn in front of the camera.
The boys had fun until our poor toddler tripped while running on uneven sidewalk. (You can see the uneven sidewalk next to him in the picture above.) It was the worst skinned knee he's ever had it definitely hurt worse than other falls as well.
We fixed it up and managed to calm him down before the bus came. My little student was ready and brave. I asked him if I could take his picture so he sat down on a step and smiled for me. I meant to get more of the bus in the picture but the thought escaped me in the moment.
I neglected to consider how to include little brother in the process and he did not like what was happening. I'm sure he was a little more sensitive because of the skinned knee, and because I hadn't included him more, but he was definitely not happy to see the bus drive away with his big brother. He was pretty inconsolable for a while. Between that and the knee I spent most of our preschooler's first day at school holding an unhappy little brother.
(He didn't like big brother getting on the bus today either, but there were no tears. After his nap today he played a bit until he suddenly became very upset and I'm sure it was because he's not used to playing by himself for so long. He really missed his big brother and was very sad. So I abandoned the kitchen work to console and then play with him for a while. Right now he needs me nearly all of his awake time while big brother is away. It's nice to have the one-on-one time so I'm not complaining. He was playing alone for a few minutes today when I saw the bus arriving so I called to him that his big brother was home and he came smiling and laughing and running to go out and meet him.)
His bus ride home is longer than I'd like it to be. My request for a hug when he first got home was denied. He seemed to have had a good time, he told me about some of the things they did. After he'd been home a bit I felt for the rock in his pocket and asked if he'd remembered it was there or if he'd forgotten about it, and he said he remembered it the whole time. I don't know what he meant exactly, but it was a super sweet answer ♥
Another big deal for our preschooler yesterday was that a little while after he got home he went into the bathroom and did #2. He's done #2 on the potty before, but it's been a long time and he's fairly against it. I asked him if he'll do that again next time and he said no.
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