Jack's First Day of Preschool!

I'm kind of in denial that my baby is in preschool.  Obviously I'm going to have to stop denying it as I'm going to be dropping him off at school two times a week, every week over the coming months.

Huge, I tell ya.

He LOVES his "packpack".  It has tractors, trucks, airplanes, trains, and firetrucks on it.  All of his favorites!

This whole thing kind of snuck up on me.  We toured the school he's attending as a family moooonths ago (because these sorts of things fill up quickly.  I'm a procrastinator by nature and that's probably one of the biggest things I need to work on as a mother.  Procrastination doesn't work.  You have to plan 6+ months in advance to book birthday parties, sign up for school, apparently you have to start buying Christmas gifts in July and making Halloween costumes in August.  Anyhoo...), filled out the required paperwork, paid the registration fee, then I promptly pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind.

When we first arrived the kids got some free play and Jack settled right in.

Over the coming months I was caring for two kids, one in the midst of 3-year-old insanity, and the majority of my worries regarding Jack attending school centered on the potty training issue.  The school really wants the students to be potty trained to attend and with Jack not only not being potty trained but actively hating and resisting the idea of it, I just really wasn't sure how things were going to shake out.

He gravitated toward the vehicles, of course.  While we were waiting to enter the classroom he was already talking about what kind of trucks they would have to play with.

A few weeks before the start of his program we tackled potty training head on.  After a very rough couple of weeks Jack is now doing really well with the potty!  More on this later.  He's still not 100% trained, but we've come a very long way.

They even have Mack and Lightening McQueen!

Mark and I attended Jack's orientation 5 days before his first day of school (and only a day after he started actually using the potty, oy.) and while I was sitting there listening to information about the program and what he would be doing while at school, it suddenly hit me.  Oh. my. goodness. this is actually happening.  Jack is going to start school and two days a week he will be in someone else's care for 2 1/2 hours.  Learning new things, meeting new people, and expected to follow instructions and conform to structure.  He is never going to be home with me all day, every day again as he's on the precipice of his entire school career.  Big stuff!

A little circle time.  At first he was a little hesitant to sit with the other kids while I stayed in the back of the room, but he got over it quickly.  He was so excited about everything he had trouble holding still and announced to everyone mid-story time that he was wearing Finn McMissle underwear today and that he was SO happy that his mama came to school with him today!  Hahaha!  He was quite the chatterbox all day.

The great thing at his preschool program is they have a parent stay with the kids for the first day.  This gave him a chance to experience preschool with me nearby and it gave me a chance to see what his days will be like and how he'll interact while he's there.

Lined up and waiting patiently for a potty break.  He even used the potty at school, which was huge!  I didn't know how he would react to using the potty there.  He's not used to going anywhere but at home, but he did it!

Jack did so great on his first day!  He was so excited to go to school and he really did well following instructions and interacting with the other kids.  He was excited about school before, but now that he sees what it's really about I think he's even more excited!

Doing some fun activities!  Coloring Cat in the Hat.

And painting an apple green.

When we would talk about school before he would say he wanted to go, but that he wanted me to go with him.  I would explain that I would be there for the first day, but that he would be going on his own after that.  He would just keep saying he wanted me to be there too.  When we were leaving yesterday we had the conversation again, but this time when I reminded him that the next day he went it would be by himself he just said, "okay".  My baby is growing up.

And hi, I was there too :)  This was during music time.  Jack really liked that too.

I know this is going to be a really great experience and I'm so excited for him.  Who knows, maybe it will be good for me too.