first days of preschool

Emily had two “first”days of preschool this past week.  Her first first day was Tuesday, I stayed with her, and it was an hour and a half.  Her second first day was Thursday, she stayed by herself, and it was two and a half hours.

The first day.  It was a breeze.  She played, talked to her teachers, watched the other kids (none of them really interacted with each other) and got the hang of the room.  They did a mini-circle time where they learned a poem and danced to a cd.  They learned the pre-snack bathroom routine, had snack and then we made a project together.  Easy.  We celebrated with a stop at Friendly’s for milkshakes.

The second day.  I could feel the anxiety in the air, probably mostly mine though.  She had been telling me the day before that she didn’t want me to leave preschool so I was anticipating a difficult drop-off.  I didn’t think she would cry a lot or grab on to me or anything like that, but I thought she might cry or tell me that she didn’t want me to leave.  Much to my surprise, and despite the screaming and kicking (literally) that another child was doing, she kissed and hugged me goodbye, found a book to read and I was on my way back to work.  I called the preschool about a half hour later to check on her.  I didn’t call when Connor entered preschool, even though he was apprehensive, but I had to call because of the other child.  That could be an entirely new blog…let’s just say that his behavior was slightly out of control and I was worried about her reaction.  The director happened to answer the phone in the classroom when I called and she gave me a minute by minute account of what Emily did since I left and how she was acting.  She was doing great.

Carl reported that she was positive about her afternoon when he picked her up.  Later that day she gave me more details about what she did at school.  She even told me that when I left, she wanted to cry but she didn’t.  She was proud of herself.  And I was proud of her too.