Woznation

Wil and Evie started preschool!  After visiting twelve (12!!!!!!!) preschools in the area, we finally settled on one mid-August and the kids are loving it.

Wil is going 9-11:30 Monday through Friday.  There are options for earlier drop-off or later pick-up, but we are starting slow.  He also does 30 extra minutes of speech at the school on Tuesday and Thursday which he really seems to enjoy.  There is another speech program through the city on Thursdays from 3-4 that we are trying out as well.  We will see which one works best for us over the next month, but so far he is loving all of them! Wil is in a class of 18, with two teachers.  I think like 14 of the kids are boys?!  He seems to get along with everyone for the most part and is adjusting well.  They do not have a strong discipline policy ( no time-outs or ‘yellows’ like last year), which I think helps Wil not feel like hes in trouble all. the. time.  All the kids are assigned a ‘helper job’ every day,  like hold the door, turn off the lights, push in chairs, etc.  One time Wil told me they switched his job to be the ‘watcher’, which I thought was a really clever way to separate him from the class to calm down, instead of a ‘time-out’.  Parent/teacher conferences are at the beginning of Oct, so we’ll see if I get any more details then. But I think its going awesome.

(This is what happens when you take too many pictures of your 4 year old on the first day of school:)

Evie goes one day a week (Fridays).  The 2-year old class is truly hilarious.  I have no idea how they accomplish anything.  But I thought it was a good introduction to sitting in a circle, listening to a teacher, and being away from me. They started with one hour and are slowly working their way up to 2.5 hours.  The first week they had all the parents stay in a room around the corner in case there were any serious meltdowns.  A few of us exchanges emails in case we wanted to meet up outside of school, which was really nice.  And a couple parents were called out to help their kids, but I was never called!  Evie looooooves school, and doesnt miss me at all :). The last few weeks have gone great, too.

The school has an awesome pick-up and drop-off policy with the little ones.  Its a giant car circle where they bring all the kids right to the door and let out one by one when you circle around.  I have a big sign with the kids names on it, so they know who to let out.  Its really convenient, but a huge downside is that I havent met ANYONE, at least in Wil’s class.  I’m so disappointed!  I was really hoping to meet other people in the area and make some friends through preschool.  I knew tons of other moms from chatting at pick-up at Wil’s old school, but pick-up here is a completely isolated experience.  Oh well.  I’m trying to make some connections through Evie’s class email list, but its still a work in progress.

The hardest part of preschool is dropping off Wil Monday through Thursday and Evie watching him go.  She wants to go to school sooooo bad, every day, and misses her brother.  But its been really nice for me to only deal with one kid and I’ve enjoyed our mother/daughter time before #3 comes along. I’m really looking forward to having a few Friday mornings to myself – but so far that hasnt happened due to waiting at school the first week, visitors the second week, and Wil being sick the third week. Go figure. I’m hoping this Friday will pan out since I planned Barney’s yearly appointment.  Maybe next Friday I can go get a massage!