Preschool: Week 1-2 Report

Week 1

Day 1: Tuesday, Noah BURST out of the car, ran for the door, and by the time I got there, was pounding on the door to be admitted. He dashed for the classroom, and by the time I came from signing him in, he was already on a mat with some other kids playing with blocks. He held a hand up like "I'm busy, woman -- come back later." I heard him when he realized I'd gone, just as I stepped out the door. The director patted my arm reassuringly. "Call when you get to work -- he'll be fine."

I called. He was fine.

Day 2: Wednesday Noah was a little less exuberant, but still eager, though vigilant about making sure I stayed. Cried when I left. "Call" the director said. I called. He was fine.

Day 3: Now he was ready. He melted down the moment I moved toward the door. School request is for a bandaid-removal-fast departure, so I kissed and left him howling in his teacher's arms.

Day 4: "I don't want to beeeeeee here!" He sobbed the whole way into the school from the car. I had to peel him off me and hand him to his teacher, then slink away like an ashamed dog.

Week 2

Day 1: What? We were going there again? NOOOO! "I don't want to be here!" Crying and much gnashing of teeth. Teacher thanked me for being so resiliant with the "fast departure" policy -- that he's fine within minutes of my leaving and has fun and is already progressing during the day. He howls in her arms as I leave.

Day 2: He professes that he doesn't want to be there, and for the first time requests to go to day care instead, but walks in willingly holding my hand all the way into the classroom, where I kiss him and transfer his hand to his teacher. He whines, but does not howl. I arrive in the afternoon to find out that he's had two accidents and needs new pants in his storage bin; he's in the school's rather alarming pair of red sweatpants.

Today is Day 3. We went early, and he weakly objected that he didn't want his teacher, but left me signing him in and walked to the early-morning care room, and as I joined him, we found a bin of plastic alligators -- what's not to like? I kissed and departed, and heard him TELL the teacher that he wanted his Mommy, but not only no howling, but not even crying.

When I picked him up after lunch, his teacher told me that he had had another accident, and what she's doing about it. She also told me that where last week he had been in full-on wracking sobs when I left, this week he hasn't been nearly as upset, and I told her that he hadn't even cried this morning, and she practically high-fived me.

Already I see the changes in my beloved boy. He talks to me in full sentences in the car, and I'm cherishing the extra time to talk in the car. He responds much more verbally now -- something that the teacher is working on. When he was surrounded by younger kids, he had a less-than-ideal tendency to just whine, and not tell you what's wrong. She's working with him to verbalize what's bothering him, as I've been. So in the car, we discussed and quizzed and discussed again about "When you need to go potty, what do you do?" until his consistent response was "I find my teacher and tell her I need to go to the bathroom."

She tells me, too, that he's adjusting to the structure of the class -- standing and sitting on the line, sitting quietly during story time, etc. He hasn't had any of that structure, really, to this point, and that he's starting to get it in the first 2 weeks of school is just amazing to me. And yet, he went to the service for erev Rosh Hashanah last night and made it through almost all of a nearly 2 hour service, and also through the children's service today. This would have been unheard of before.

It's hard to take him from the warm, womb-like loving environment of day care and put him into a place with people he doesn't know and who don't already love him. I feel like I'm already having to participate in "hardening" him for the big bad world, and that maks me a little bit sad. But I also continue to feel that this is such a good environment for him.... If we can just survive the transition, I'll be happy.