Happy third birthday week: School

This year John started a new era in his life that will continue for the next 18 years or so... he started "school". I put it in quotations, as it is not really school at this age, but that is what John knows it as and I am not sure having him refer to it as "mothers day out" is appropriate. :)

We waited until he was 2.5 to start him in school, and I think it was the perfect time. Every kids is different and Matthew may be ready earlier or later, but for John, it was ideal. I think I posted about this before, but that first day of dropping him off... I was crying so hard that I left my sunglasses on the whole time and it was one of those cries where you can not even take a deep breath. The second day, John was more upset, but then after that... smooth sailing!

Ms. Tonya and Ms. Betty are his teachers and John seems to like them just fine. A couple of our friends in the neighborhood also have them as teachers and are not the biggest fans though. I guess John really does not know any better, but he is happy. Neither of them are super warm people, but by no means are they mean or inappropriate. Ms. Betty is a grandmother and Ms. Tonya has high school kids, so both are a bit older than I would have expected. They do seem to treat the day more like a business than a fun experience. But they have been doing it for so many years, I am sure they just fall into a routine.

They seem to love John. I asked yesterday if they were seeing any mean talk or behavior out of John while at school and Ms. Tonya acted so surprised. She said he would be the last kids that he would expect that from and that he is always so sweet. She said she would start listening and watching for it, but seriously doubted it. That makes me feel good I suppose, although that means he is just doing it towards me and Carl, which is disturbing.

Anyone reading this knows that I am a highly competitive person, so when the first semester "progress report" came home (which I had no idea about, or I would have been on pins and needles for a week) I was no less than running to the car to read it. Keep in mind this is a 2 year old program and there is no comparison to other kids, but I still was so curious how he was doing when I was not around.

The scale basically was "not exhibiting the skill at all", "emerging skill" or something like "doing it less than 50% of the time" or "doing it more than 50% of the time". Almost everything was more than 50% of the time for John, but some of the ones that he was doing less than 50% of the time surprised me. Specifically - using scissors. I had NEVER handed him scissors before, of course he does not know how to use them! I did not think he was ready... but don't you know the next day I had a pair of safety scissors for him to practice with at home! Anyway, I won't go into all the details here. Once I get the 2nd semester report I will do a separate post, as I think it will be interesting to look back on in years.

One thing I have loved is seeing him learn from other people. It took me back at first when he would come home with a new word or song or action that I know I did not teach him. But it is so fun. I LOVE talking to him about his day (when he is in the mood that is), I think his answers are so interesting. And most of the time are quite revealing... the other day he told us that he was telling Zach about his fishing trip with Daddy and that Ms. Tonya had to tell them to be quite and not talk during the movie (it was Valentines party, they normally do not watch a movie). And then one day he told us that Ms. Tonya told him he could not growl at Avery any more because she did not like it. That is my little dinosaur!

He has not really picked up the Spanish much, or at least he does not really talk about it, but I know he loves when it is music or art day. I have SO MUCH art. I am saving it all in a box, not sure why, but I can not bring myself to throw it away.

He says he favorite part of school is the playground....shocker. He favorite friend changes every day, which I think the 'center time' is structured so that they play with different kids everyday. I really like this.

His coloring and tracing has gotten so much better this year, I attribute that to school and Kara. She works with him one on one a lot when she is hear. I love her too!

He will actually not go to this school again in the Fall though. I got up and stood in line at 5:00am in February to get one of the last remaining 6 spots in the Sunshine Kids preschool program at Stonebridge United Methodist church. It is where Carl and I got married. They have an incredible program that people just rave about and get in line at 5:00am in the morning to get a spot for. I am so excited about that! And he will be in the same class as his best little buddy Garrett.

It has been a great start to the next 18 years of his life....