Christopher Fridays: First Day of School

Christopher will be attending his first day of school on Monday. Can you believe it! Where did my baby go?

I originally planned to start him in Nursery School in January - perfect timing because the kids would be coming back from the Christmas break and it sometimes takes them a few sessions to get back into the swing of it. But, then everything kinda imploded in December and those plans got scrapped.

I decided to revisit the idea for a few reasons: First, because my mom lives about a block away from the Nursery School I wanted to send him to and second, because he needed the child interaction to boost his speech and potty training (which, BTW, he did another poopie in the potty last night. Go, boy!).

So, we went to see the Lutheran Church Nursery School on Wednesday and I was quite impressed!

When we arrived, we were the first ones there to greet the teachers - it has flurried overnight, so the other kids were late. We were welcomed right away. When the other kids arrived, they all seemed so happy to be there - talking up a storm. The kids lined up and were led into the classroom. We followed behind.

Once the kids took their coats off and hung them up in their cubbies (assisted, of course), they went off for their play session.

The Nursery Room is HUGE! It is at least 3 times the size of the Pre-K room at my old grammar school. And, the room is CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! The set-up is wonderful: Play area with toys galor, all organized in easy to grab and carry crates, and kitchen play stations. The circle-time rug where they do stories/structure time is beautiful - clean and well organized. The kid-size snack/craft tables are well worn, but clean and kept orderly. Each of the 8 kids has a cubby for their coats and supplies - including change of clothes, emergency kit with food enough for 24 hours, etc. Teacher's desk right at the door - although the teachers there never sat down. The supervision is close to what we do at home - except there are more teachers than just me.

We decided to stay the entire time - and, Chris went immediately off to play with the kids the second we got there! Now, of course, I was there the entire time...so, we will see what happens when he is left on Monday for his first official day. But, he loved it and the kids accepted him right away. He was an old pro within a few minutes.

He participated in story time, snack time, craft time (from which I got my first "Mommy! Look what I did! craft - a Valentine's Day sun visor). He even asked the teachers nicely for "More, please" at snack time.

The Nursery school is either M-W or M-W-F from 9:15-11:45 am. He will be attending M-W for this Spring, then M-W-F for the Fall and following Spring. He is the youngest in this class right now - and the teacher is taking him un-pottytrained now (as long as he is in pull-ups) because my mom lives down the street from the school. Now that he has been pooing on the potty, he has been doing pretty well with not doing it in his diaper, so we had him in pull-ups most of the day the past couple of days. I hope he will be really potty-trained by the fall.

What I especially liked about the Nursery School is that, because of the very small class size, she can work with him more on getting him used to the program, what he needs to do, and work on his speech. His speech has been a concern to us for a while now - he is talking and putting simple sentances together, but he is lazy with speech because, well, Nanny and Rocky get everything for him without him asking. They don't push him to ask for things - and this teacher, like I do, will. We already have seen an improvement in his speech - last night, he said to me "Pillow! I want it there!" and placed the pillow on top of another and "went to sleep." That was a brand new sentance - well structured and clear. I am very excited.

The other thing I am excited that Chris did was wear his backpack. We bought him a small Spiderman backpack because his old tote was dying - except he never wanted to wear it on his back. He had no point of reference as to why he would wear it. Once he saw the other kids with theirs on, he wanted his on. And, he wore it for line-up time, dismissal, all the way to the car. What a big boy!

I will be at work when he goes for his first official day at school - but, my mom promised to take pics. Will post the pics of my little School Boy on Monday!