School!!

I know I haven't written in a while but now seemed like the perfect time for an update. Jaimisen started preschool last Wednesday, August 11th! He is going to the Walnut Creek Christian Academy, First Baptist Preschool, Monday through Friday from 8:30-2:45. I needed him to go full time because starting in November, I will be teaching full time. So Jaimisen dove right into preschool. I thought for sure he was going to have a hard time adjusting and we would be struggling day after day getting him to stay at preschool without crying, being upset, or sad. I have been prepping him for preschool all summer. I told him exactly what was going to happen - "Mommy is going to drop you off with your teacher and other kids and you are going to get to play and learn new things! Mommies aren't allowed to stay at preschool so I will leave then come pick you up after naptime" - I told him how nice is teacher is once I met her at info night, he got to shop for his school supplies, and we started our "preschool routine" two weeks before he started school. I woke him up at the time he would need to wake up for preschool, we got dressed, ate breakfast then drove to his preschool so he could see it. Then he took a bath and went to sleep at an earlier time. I had done everything I could to prepare him for such a huge step.

The first day: He kept saying "I don't want to go to preschool today" all morning but wasn't upset or crying so I kept reassuring him he was going to have a great time and I would stay with him for a little while when we got there. When we got there, I signed him in and directed him toward his classroom door. As I was behind him, guiding him through the doorway, Jaimisen FROZE, dropped his lunchbox and turned around CLINGING to my legs. I thought this was it, it was beginning. We finally got through the doorway and Jaimisen seemed impressed when his teacher came up to him and said "Hi Jaimisen!" without him having to tell her his name. His teacher talked to him for a minute and Jaimisen just listened and looked around. We walked around the room - he found his cubby and his seat at the table - and we looked at all the toys and books to play with. He slowly unglued himself from my side and started to venture into the room for a few minutes on his own and then would come back to me. All of a sudden I saw something click in his face, he was happy and comfortable and felt safe. In an instant he was skipping around the room then came back and said "I need to show Miss Cassi my lunchbox!" He grabbed it from his cubby and showed his teacher his name on the front and spelled it out for her. She was impressed and he was happy. I told him I was going at that point and would be back later and he said okay, gave me a hug and a kiss and smiled up at Miss Cassi, holding her hand as I walked away. I knew he was going to be okay after that. However, my mom called twice during the day to see if the school had called yet saying Jaimisen was freaking out. She has no faith in him. The second day was just as good. He only had good things to say about preschool and his teacher said he was doing "Great!"

The third day: This is when naptime presented a problem. I think Jaimisen finally realized, "We have to have naptime EVERY day??" He started crying, Miss Cassi tried to console him to no avail and eventually he made another kid start crying. The preschool director Ms. Schnabel came to take Jaimisen to try to help him calm down. She let him work with her in her office, giving him little tasks to do and he even got to help her make copies! Of course he was completely happy with this, so Miss Cassi tried to get him to come back to the classroom to lay down with the rest of the kids to finish naptime. He refused and had to change his green card (meaning he's being a good boy) to a yellow card (meaning he got a warning). He listened after that and the rest of the day went fine. Ms. Schnabel said he was a great helper and even a different preschool teacher said he was "an absolute doll!" Oh Jaimisen. Haha.

The fourth day: Miss Cassi said when she started getting the nap mats out during lunch to prepare for naptime, Jaimisen started getting upset again but she assured him it was still lunch time and it would be okay. She said he cried a little bit but was able to calm himself down and then fell asleep :) She said he did much better than the third day.

Obviously he's not very keen on naptime every single day, but he seems to be getting through it. And the fact that he's getting through it without me is a huge accomplishment for him. Usually when he gets himself so worked up, he won't calm down for anyone but me. I am so proud of him for not only being able to stay at preschool for such long days without me, but also for trusting his teachers and the environment that he's in to the point where he can calm himself down and know that everything will be okay :)

Today is his fifth day. Evan is picking him up from school because I have class from 2-4 (how inconvenient) so we will see how that goes! I think Evan is a little nervous. Haha. Hopefully Jaimisen doesn't cry at all today! He did so perfect the first two days, I think it finally all caught up with him. Hopefully he is able to turn things back around today and have a happy day :)