Pre-K

     I was going to try to wait a little longer but I figure I can update again at a later time. It's been three days for Jacob in Pre-k so far. He is in a NY state paid for pre-k run in our school district. He seems to love it. At least that's usually the overwhelming emotion I get from him. There are times when he tells me he does not want to go too. They fade out shortly, though.
     At orientation he got to stay in the classroom with the other kids and an aide and play. The parents got to go across the hall to the library and listen to the teachers. He almost didn't even notice me leaving the room. When he did he came running over. I told him I'd be right back and he turned and took off again. The first day he was very excited to go. He went right into the school and didn't even look back. I had to call him back to at least give me a kiss gooodbye. With his teachers prodding he quickly returned to me, kissed me, and ran right back in.
     Then they had four days off. Yesterday he was not so keen on going. All morning he was telling me he didn't want to go. Now I'm home all day anyway and if he really doesn't want to I will not force him. I believe he needs to give it a chance first though. So, I told him we'd bring his backpack back to the store then instead since he didn't need it if he wasn't going to school. I also told him he could pick one of Emilys school only snacks for me to have in the car for him when I picked him up. If he wanted one he had to go to school. They were school snacks. These little tricks seemed to work and by 12pm he was bugging me to go already. His class doesn't start until 1pm.
     He has not told me much about what they do during the day. I know they go outside where they are not allowed to play on the playground equipment. It is made for ages 5 and up, the kindergarteners. School rules say they cannot play on it. It's really funny but at least the teachers warned us of this at orientation. She said they bring things outside for them to do but so far Jacob has said they have not. I know they also have snack provided every day as we were told not to send anything in. He was very excited he got chocolate milk and pretzels yesterday. Jake did say he played with a boy named Jaden. And he had a red shirt on that was his favorite color. So maybe as the days go on I'll get some more information.
     Today he joked with me about not wanting to go to school. I took him to the grocery store this morning and as soon as we were done, 10:30am, he was ready to go to school. He kept telling me, "ok, we can go to my school now." Being it's five days a week I think he'll be used to it very quickly. I don't think he'll get sick of it. I'll probably get sick of driving him and making sure one of the big boys is home to get Emily off the bus. That is the worst part about his school. It's afternoon session. I tried to switch but it has not worked out. Once the boys both want/need to stay after I'll really become the Taxi Mom, running back and forth to the different schools and home. But thats all part of the job right?
     The main reason for Jake to go to preschool was the socialization. He knows his letters, numbers, how to cut and write his name and lots of other things some kindergarteners don't know. It's really to give him the experience of going to school. He has wanted to go on the bus with Emily for over a year now. Thankfully he got into the nice free school program. Otherwise we'd be playing school at home a lot more and getting out with other kids as much as possible.
     I never saw Jake having a problem with school. He always looked forward to it. I feel bad for the parents of the screamers who cling on and screech their little heads off when being dropped off. I had to deal with that with Andrew. Granted he was only three at the time but for some kids it's just not easy. They do adjust. Just like you do. They stop crying in the classroom, like you stop crying on the drive home. It may take a few days or weeks, I hope not months, but you do get there.
    Today we got to school early. All the other kids that had gotten there early were standing outside the door. No one wanted to go in. Jake didn't have that problem. We stopped for a minute so I could fix his backpack and off he went. He didn't care he was the first one in. He was too excited. He sat on the bench to wait. Another boy came in and sat next to him and they started talking. He eventually turned and looked out the window behind him at me and waved. Off I went, freedom for two and a half hours, funny I wasn't very excited.