Back to School

It was recently time to go back to school.  And for our younger son, it was the first time.  He has been through two years of dropping his brother off at preschool and picking him up from preschool, twice a week, so I think that, along with everyone asking him all of the time if he's excited for preschool, helped to prepare him.

The night before the first day of preschool, our older son removed all of his little brother's clothes on hangers and laid them out for him and announced, "Here are your school clothes.  Pick what you are going to wear tomorrow."  I was impressed!  Instead of picking the usual clothes he begs for when dirty, like his button up red airplane shirt or his superhero tights, undies, and shirts, he happily picked a nice sweater and new-to-him jeans.  He, without any input from anyone else, chose a wool jacket, like his dad wears to work, and brown leather shoes.  I knew at this point that emotionally these boys have everything under control and that this was going to go alright.  He had some trouble going to sleep, which is not unusual for him, but when I awakened him in the morning, talk of what I was going to put on his oatmeal (whole milk, blueberries, and maple syrup--the usual) got him in the mood to wake up and let me dress him.  Yes, I dressed a preschooler that morning.  He is still my baby, always will be, and quite frankly I'd like someone to dress me each morning.  He announced that he was going to pour the milk and add the syrup.  His older brother cried while he did this out of jealousy, but preschoolers get to do new and challenging things, and he knew this!

We all ate breakfast at the table together.  I took a photo of him and drove him to school.  He entered the school with confidence, put his coat and backpack in his cubby, attached his name-tag to it, and sat down in a circle with the other kids in his class.  It was a full class of 9 children, mostly boys.  I took another photo and left, fighting my instinct to go back in and peek at him.  When I arrived to pick him up, he gave me the look that he always gives me when I pick him up at his babysitter or his grandparent's house:  a squinty-eyed shrug of the shoulders.  He didn't quite want it to end and he was still a little unsure of how to proceed at this point, but once we went inside to say goodbye to all of the animals (turtle, fish, anole, etc), he was confident again.  The teacher said he didn't want to say his name during introductions, but later told her that he wanted to be called by his middle name, which is his grandfather's first name.  He also talked to her about his favorite part of the day, which was snack time:  goldfish and cheese sticks.  The teacher by chance is one of the best friends of one of my close friends.  The preschool director is the teacher that our older son had last year.  And the nephew of our next door neighbor is also going to the school.  I know he appreciates those familiarities as much as I do.  And I hope that he makes new friends at school.  He already told me there aren't any bad kids in his class.  Whew!  By the third day, he was talking to his teacher more openly, although still quietly.  By the second or third week, he had become quiet comfortable speaking his mind and playing with the other children.

For our older son, Kindergarten is definitely welcomed change.  I'd like to keep him home, but he is more than ready to tackle something new.  We have been biking to this Elementary School to play on the playground since he was two.  It's where my husband went to school.  In fact, there are large photos of him and his classmates, the first years the school opened, all over the walls of the school.  We had been to Kindergarten Round-up, Meet the Bus day, and finally when we went to Meet the Teacher / Ice Cream Social day, he marched up to the school, found his name on the Kindergarten list (4 classes), went straight to his teacher's classroom through hoards of people, waited in line to meet her and said, with his hands in his pockets and his hood up, "So, it looks like I'm in the morning class."  She replied, "Well, it looks like you're all grown up."  His grandmother, who had gone with us nodded.  He has a thing with teachers.  She asked questions about him and our family and in two minutes, before I had completely the paperwork, he was bored with the classroom and wanted to meet the Librarian and Principal.  He was happy to do the assessment because he had all of the teacher's attention, and when school started and he was able to bring his backpack with his snack, lunch, and finally meet the other kids, he was ecstatic.  The teacher says he will not be bored, so all I can do is hope she is right ... and volunteer my help once a week during the reading, writing, and math curriculum.  Elementary School has been going on for several weeks now and I have been volunteering for four.  The personality types of the students are very interesting and the way my son portrayed the other students is very much like it is.  He has a great class of ten students.

While our older son is off in the world having new experiences with his new classmates, his little brother is the big brother of the house.  I can already see the bond between he and his little sister growing.  The play very well together as the boys always have.  But, now that there is school for both of the boys their time together is less frequent and I can tell more precious to them.