First Day - Preschool

A couple weeks ago, we attended Eli's preschool open house.  It was a great opportunity for him to see his classroom and meet his teacher, Miss Virginia and her helper, Ms. Kathy again.  Prior to the open house, the preschool teacher along with her aide scheduled home visits to each house of the incoming preschoolers this year - 29 total between her 2 classes!  At the home visit, she had a few questions for me while her helper worked on an "All About Me" page with Eli that was later displayed in their classroom.

At the open house, his teacher had created a scavenger hunt for us to find various things around the classroom, like his cubby where he will hang his backpack, his mailbox, and other fun things to help him get acquainted with the new territory.  

Preschool was scheduled to start last Wednesday, but due to the heat, it was cancelled all 3 days last week.  Eli finally attended his first day of preschool today.  He is in the afternoon session at Sacred Heart.  I had signed him up for the morning session as my first preference and had turned in the paperwork right away, but he still ended up in the afternoon session.  It still works out since he doesn't take afternoon naps anymore anyway.  Plus, it is a nice break right after lunch that allows me to finish up my work for the day before he comes back home.  

I had fully intended for him to ride the bus to and from preschool since it was offered as an option, but once I realized he would have an hour-long ride on the bus both to and from school each way because of where we live, I quickly decided against it since I did not want him on the bus for that long each day.  Yet, another change in plans.  Spontaneity is definitely not my forte; I like it best when things go according to plan with no bumps in the road along the way.  Right now, it still works okay for me to fit it into my schedule to drop him off and pick him up.  It might be more of a challenge this fall with the arrival of the new baby and adapting to her schedule, too.  If the bus ride was not as long as an hour each way, we would be taking full advantage of this service.

As for the first day of preschool, Eli was very eager and ready to go.  He even willingly posed for his first annual back-to-school picture before we left, along with another picture in front of the sign at his preschool, which is actually in the same building as his daycare this summer.  I think switching him to the daycare at Sacred Heart really helped him in the transition to starting preschool.  

On our way home, his answers to my questions were quite vague, but he seemed to overall enjoy the day.  He even said he wanted to stay there and sounded a bit disappointed when it was time for him to be picked up.  He was really excited to show me the papers in his folder.  His teacher also uses a notebook as a communication tool with messages written back and forth between her and the parents.  Miss Virginia is a great match for Eli's personality.  She is a young, friendly, genuinely kind, and mild mannered teacher with clear expectations.  We are looking forward to a great year!