First Day of Preschool

Will started preschool this week!  Such a big day for both Will and his mommy.  We've been talking about it a lot and I thought he was pretty well-prepared.  I went in to work late on his first day so that I could take him, and he did the drop-off thing pretty well.  The drop-off procedure is come in, sign in, take shoes and backpack to cubby, kiss Mommy goodbye and hit the circle mat.  So I walked him in, signed him in, took his shoes and backpack off and the preschool director came over to talk to him.  I said my goodbyes and left.  No crying!!  (From either party) So I thought we were off to a good start.  Here is Will before going in -

My mom picked him up at the end of the day (three hours later).  I think both Will and his teacher were pretty frazzled.  The teacher briefly talked to my mom about Will's day - a potty accident (we've been potty trained for nearly a year now!), a removal from recess due to disobedience and very little participation with the group.  Yikes.  Will didn't really want to talk about school.  He would flat-out ignore any questions about school, only telling me that he "cut with scissors" and "made a big mistake."

I opened Will's backpack to check his yellow folder - where we get to see what he's done in school that day, and I saw this -

BLANK PAGES!!  Apparently, Will did not participate in "journal time".  When I ask him about this, he just ignored me again.  Later that night, Will and I sat down with his crayons and discussed the importance of "journal time" and that mommy really loves it when she sees his drawings from school.  So we got out the crayons and worked on them.  15 minutes later, I had one proud boy -

Will must have exhausted himself, because he fell asleep on the couch before supper.  This never happens.

Thankfully, on Wednesday the director of the preschool and I got to have a chat.  She reassured me that she thought Will would work the "kinks" out and that most of his issues were not major.  She said "Will just wants to do his own thing."  And that sounds pretty acceptable from a child who spends his days with his grandparents on the farm.  Other than the occasional playdate, he really does spend all of this time with adults and his baby brother.  We decided that Will just needed some more time to adjust.  That night, Will and I talked about what to expect at school - circle time, journal time, center time, etc.... including how to ask the teacher to potty.  I didn't want to be too hard on the little guy, so I just left it at that and prayed he would do better as the weeks progress.  

Today Will went back to school and I was happy to hear at pick-up time that he had a MUCH better day.  He even got a smiley sticker :)  He was much more eager to talk about his day today - and his journal pages even had crayon marks on them.  He had no potty accidents today and I'm hoping that he participated more in "class" activities.  This is a learning experience for us both, and although I know he is a smart guy, I do know that he has his quirks.  Sure, I'm excited for him to learn about letters and numbers, but I'm also anxious for him to learn the social skills that await him.  He only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so let's keep our fingers crossed that he can remember the rules four days from now!