First Day of Preschool!

Joey became exactly 2.5 years old on October 1st and started preschool the very next day! Gramma Phyllis went with him to act as his "mediator" and it went much better than any of us expected. I'm not sure if I actually took a breath the entire 2.5 hours they were there, I was dying to know how it went, but Gramma is very good at keeping Jason and I informed at work and I knew an email would be forthcoming. I was not disappointed! I thought instead of describing how I heard his day went I would just post the actual email. That way you can also see how lucky we all are to have Gramma and Papa in our lives :)

Well, I have to give Joey an A plus for his first day at nursery school!! It went so much better than even I had anticipated. I had brought a few familiar toys and his blanket to sit on if everything seemed too overwhelming. Unfortunatly, I had left them all in the hallway on his hook, so we went in cold turkey.

Fortunately they have the bead toy there so the first thing I did was sit him on a chair at the table and let him play with that. Then I moved him to the rug by the reading corner. Other kids came over to play with the toy too and he was ok with it. Then I moved him to the big rug where a few more kids were playing and once he was busy with a truck, I just walked away to talk to some of the other kids and watch him from afar. I never thought I'd get to that step today. I would have been happy to have him on my lap as long as he wasn't unhappy, but he was way passed that. He was moving around from the floor to the carpet, watching all the kids and what they were doing. He even tried to play with some of their toys. It was just awesome!

Then it was circle time and since he really doesn't like just sitting around doing nothing, I did have him on my lap and he played with my keys between songs while the kids talked about shapes and patterns and stuff like that. Then it was snack time!! We washed his hands at the sink and then he sat at a table with 5 other kids. I could have fed him off by himself but I wanted to see how this would go. He ate 3/4 of a minigo and a whole nutri pudding!!! Mind you this was between 10:30 and 11am so I'm sure he was hungry but the other kids were talking, and asking me to open up stuff for them, so I thought he did great. He spent a few minutes watching the others eat when he was done then let me know he'd enough so we moved back to the reading corner till the others were done.

Then it was time for gym, in the big gym upstairs. I figured we might as well give that a try too , so up we went. At first it seemed a little overwhelming, but there is a mini trampoline there so I sat him on it and bounced him like I do on the bed. He was all smiles. Then the teacher brought out a scooter board so he enjoyed that as well. All in all he had a good time up there, a few whiney moments but basically got through it happily.

After that is was story time. I knew he was getting tired so I sat him on my lap for the story. He actually seemed to be enjoying the book, watching the teacher as she read it and looking and smiling at the other kids. I was so proud of him. There were 2 other kids in there who cried a whole lot, but Joey was great. Now of course probably because I was with him and know the triggers that set him off and the things that calm him down. But I was not glued to him the whole time and when I felt he was ok to be alone, I sure let him do his own thing.

I think this was an excellent beginning. The teachers were very accommodating and offered to bring out other equipment if I wanted to work on his PT or OT stuff with him. I just told them that for today, I just wanted to follow his lead and let him be happy. But there are lots of activities that we can try when he is totally comfortable with the whole thing. The only thing is he really didn't want any lunch and fell asleep as soon as I put him down. He's tired and so am I. He'll be ready for a big snack when he wakes up.

So that was our morning. Time went by quickly. I thought 2 and 1/2 hours might be too long, but the pace is perfect for Joey. There is even a small aquarium in the classroom. I only really noticed it when another little boy tossed a couple of trucks into it!!

I guess Jason will be picking the boy up tonight. That's good cause Papa Roy wants to take him for walk if the sun is till shining after his nap and snack. See you all later.

One very happy, very tired Gramma.