First day of Preschool

This is a little late, but I had to see how we would turn out before I posted it. This year C.J. is attending preschool at Gateway the local elementary school. He is in the P.A.L. program, he was accepted through the Colorado Preschool Program due to his declining speech. (more on that in another post)
Myself being a stay at home mom, C.J. has only been away from me a couple times a year and have of that he is with his dad and the other have with close well known trusted family members. I anticipated him having some separation anxiety as I left him with a stranger for the first time. So we took steps to minimize it and or prevent it.

1) At his evaluation he met his teacher and saw his classroom. We located the cubbies and the bathroom.

2) We attended open house where he re-met one teacher and met the other for the first time. He was able to play with several other kids who would be in his class.

3) we talked about it. How mommy would drop him off , he would have fun and learn things and then mommy would come back.

4) we practiced getting up early, getting dressed and fed as if we were heading out the door, two weeks before his first day.

5) We read books about preschool "Maisy goes to preschool" and watched "Caillou" a cartoon about a four yr old boy who also goes to preschool.

He was excited and decked out with new clothes, new shoes, new backpack, an awesome spider man folder. He asked for several days "is this the day I go to preschool?" I felt confident we nailed it and he would start with no problems.

The first day of Preschool he got up and dressed with no problems. we were out the door on time and he was excited. We arrived and he got a little quieter, as more kids arrived he started acting nervous. I helped him was his hands and find his name tag, he was clinging to my leg. I sat him on his spot for story time and he started whimpering and holding me tight. I explained that it was his job for him to stay at preschool to learn things, he was a big boy now and I would be back soon. He started to cry. The teacher had to peal him off of me while he was kicking and screaming "mommy don't leave me".

I cried all the way home and called them as soon as I was through the door to see if he was alright. he was. I was a nervous pacing wreck that morning as I counted down the minutes till pick up time. I hadn't expected this we had done so many things to prepare him, but we had both been faced with a new experience. I now have new respect for all my friends who were working moms. I arrived early to see he was happily playing on the playground, no tears at all. In fact he threw a fit and didn't want to leave. Go figure. The next day he was perfect. We have since then had two days of tears, but way better then the first day.

C.J. loves preschool and now happily lets go of my hand and walks right in, as I sign him in. I see him growing up so quickly all of a sudden. Then I realize we are both growing. While I'm learning to let him go, He is learning to stand on his own.




This is the scrapbook page if his family we did for his class.





C.J.'s first day of preschool.