Preschool

Zach had his first day of preschool today.  This morning he seemed a little unsure.  When I told him that he got to go to preschool today, his response was, "I don' t want to go."  I told him he'd get to do lots of fun playing there, and he said, "But I just want to play here."  I was feeling a little uneasy about how it would all go.  But then I reminded him that they'd also have snack, which is something that is generally enticing to him.  He was a little more interested.  Anyway, as the morning went on, he didn't argue at all with me when I said it was time to get dressed for preschool, or later when I said we needed to get his shoes on and go.  So that helped me feel more at ease.  He asked as we pulled into the church parking lot, "Are some kids scared?"  I told him yes, and of course, he asked why (as he often says, why is his best question).  After I explained why they might be scared I asked if he was, and he said no.  

The preschool director was outside greeting kids and asked Zach right away what he did on Saturday.  He gave her a blank look, as I thought hard to myself, "What DID we do Saturday?"  Then she said, "Were you in Iowa City?"  Turns out she was at the Hawkeye game, too, and saw us there.  She has a great memory to know Zach after just meeting him a few times.  That mention of the Hawkeye game got things off to a great start.  We then walked into his classroom and one of his teachers, Mrs. Gray, greeted him right away.  We got the papers out of his bag and he went to put the bag in his cubby, and the other teacher, Mrs. Johnson, met him there to say hello.  He immediately started telling her about all of the things we had ironed onto his schoolbag, the different sports balls and the skulls and crossbones.  He was obviously excited to tell her about those things, so that was good.  I interrupted him to say goodbye, and he gave me a hug and Drew and I were off.  Zach never looked back.  Phew.  I felt good about how things were going.

When we picked Zach up a couple of hours later, Mrs. Johnson said things went really well.  The first thing Zach said when he got in the car was, "So I had fun today!  I made a new friend- a boy."  That was good.  He didn't know the boy's name, though.  Getting details from Zach can be difficult, unless you quit asking questions.  Then details randomly come out.  He did tell me that they had pretzels, cheese, and juice for a snack, and that he looked at a fire engine book.  Later he told Mike that he painted and that his picture had to dry.  He said he painted with another boy.  I asked him if he and the boy talked while they painted and after he said no and I asked why, he said, "We didn't have anything to talk about," in the most casual, kind of "Duh, Mom," kind of way.  He was happy that he knew his teachers' names, and he told us that one was wearing white and one was wearing blue.  He also said later that there are 4 boys in his class.  I'm not sure how many boys there are, but I'm pretty sure it's more than 4.  One other thing he said was that he wants to go to preschool all the time.  So, I'd say that overall it was a great first day of preschool.

I definitely enjoyed the time Zach was at preschool.  Drew slept for about an hour of that time, so I got the kitchen cleaned up, some laundry done, checked my email, and vacuumed upstairs.  I could get used to this!

Oh, here's the standard first day of school picture of Zach.