For the past 4 1/2 years, my life has been dedicated to taking care of our small children. I am extremely blessed to be able to stay home with them and I love it. Not that it is easy or that our children are perfect, but I enjoy being with them and taking care of them. We have also been blessed with great family and friends and good church programs, so that when our kids aren't with us, they are with people we love or know very well. We decided not to enroll G in preschool this year because she really didn't need it, and we valued the time that she has to play at home with us and her brothers. BUT, as the time gets closer to her going to school, we realized that it was going to be a big deal for her to be at school all day with people she doesn't know well yet. And that we don't know well yet, for that matter. So I started looking around for a few things that she might be able to do on her own, and found some great preschool programs by our local nature centers. They are once a week for 2 hours, and focus on a nature theme. This sounded like a great option, so we signed her up. We love the nature center and G seemed excited to go.
Last Tuesday was her first class, so I planned on getting there 20+ minutes early so that we could meet the teachers, see the place where they had class and just be ready for when it started. But due to a last minute dirty diaper from W, turning around because G forgot her mittens and hat that I had asked her to grab (only 5 blocks from home, but still), and a stalled car that blocked a major intersection for 10 minutes, we barely made it there on time. She had enough time to hang up her coat, and say hi to her teachers before they whisked her off to start the first project. They had me fill out a form with emergency and health stuff on it, but then I was ushered out of the room before I knew it. There is a great kids area in the center that the boys and I were able to sit and play at a while, but I knew that the whole point of this was not to be hovering, so after 20-30 minutes, we left the building.
At which point W had a meltdown - "We tan't LEAVE, momma! WHERE's G??? We tan't leave wit-out her!!!! STOP the tar, MOMMA! Turn around!!!!!" Boy, I wasn't expecting that at all. And it is hard to explain to a 2 yr old that we would be right back to pick her up. We left though, and soon got to Target where he was distracted enough.
But I wasn't. I know it sounds dumb, but I was really having a hard time just leaving G there with people I did not know. She is one of our most precious possessions, and I just threw her in a room with a bunch of strange kids and teachers???? And then I LEFT too??? I thought, this is dumb. We are not doing this again. G will be fine and we will cross the whole school thing next fall when we get there and we will meet and get to know her teacher before-hand and it will be much better. We finished our errands and headed back to the center probably 30 minutes before the class was finished. Partly so that the boys could play some more, partly because I wanted to check up on her and see how she was doing. Well, they had just gone outside before we got there so all I could do was wait and play with the boys (who had just a blast with all the great toys and animals there). And then the kids came back. I was secretly hoping that G would have had a horrible time so that I could be justified in not doing this again...but instead I got this:
She was beaming from ear to ear, excited to show me her projects, bubbling about all that they had done in the class. And my heart melted a little...maybe this wasn't so bad.
About the class on foxes in G's words:
"It was pretty fun. I was kinda nervous a little bit at first, but then I just walked in and it was fun. First we did the stamps of fox tracks on a big piece of paper, and made fox masks. Then a dog and a vegetarian (veterinarian) came to visit. They came because dogs are kinda like foxes - they have claws, good ears to listen for sounds, good sense of smell, and one difference is that foxes don't do tricks. Then we talked about foxes and listened to their sounds on the radio. My teachers knew a lot about foxes. There are red foxes that are orangish-yellowish and gray foxes that are brownish-grayish. Then we got a snack. It was peanuts, dog bones, marshmallows and m&m's AND apple juice. You could have cranberry juice, but I never tried that before. I only ate some of the snack - one girl thought the dog bones were REAL dog treats, so I didn't eat them. Then we went on a hike outside. We found 5 or 6 fox trackses and fox POOP! But we didn't see any foxes. I had fun and I really liked it."
The boys said bye to the turtles and we headed out to go on with the rest of our day.
"Can we do this again, momma?"
"Sure, honey."
Last Tuesday was her first class, so I planned on getting there 20+ minutes early so that we could meet the teachers, see the place where they had class and just be ready for when it started. But due to a last minute dirty diaper from W, turning around because G forgot her mittens and hat that I had asked her to grab (only 5 blocks from home, but still), and a stalled car that blocked a major intersection for 10 minutes, we barely made it there on time. She had enough time to hang up her coat, and say hi to her teachers before they whisked her off to start the first project. They had me fill out a form with emergency and health stuff on it, but then I was ushered out of the room before I knew it. There is a great kids area in the center that the boys and I were able to sit and play at a while, but I knew that the whole point of this was not to be hovering, so after 20-30 minutes, we left the building.
At which point W had a meltdown - "We tan't LEAVE, momma! WHERE's G??? We tan't leave wit-out her!!!! STOP the tar, MOMMA! Turn around!!!!!" Boy, I wasn't expecting that at all. And it is hard to explain to a 2 yr old that we would be right back to pick her up. We left though, and soon got to Target where he was distracted enough.
But I wasn't. I know it sounds dumb, but I was really having a hard time just leaving G there with people I did not know. She is one of our most precious possessions, and I just threw her in a room with a bunch of strange kids and teachers???? And then I LEFT too??? I thought, this is dumb. We are not doing this again. G will be fine and we will cross the whole school thing next fall when we get there and we will meet and get to know her teacher before-hand and it will be much better. We finished our errands and headed back to the center probably 30 minutes before the class was finished. Partly so that the boys could play some more, partly because I wanted to check up on her and see how she was doing. Well, they had just gone outside before we got there so all I could do was wait and play with the boys (who had just a blast with all the great toys and animals there). And then the kids came back. I was secretly hoping that G would have had a horrible time so that I could be justified in not doing this again...but instead I got this:
She was beaming from ear to ear, excited to show me her projects, bubbling about all that they had done in the class. And my heart melted a little...maybe this wasn't so bad.About the class on foxes in G's words:
"It was pretty fun. I was kinda nervous a little bit at first, but then I just walked in and it was fun. First we did the stamps of fox tracks on a big piece of paper, and made fox masks. Then a dog and a vegetarian (veterinarian) came to visit. They came because dogs are kinda like foxes - they have claws, good ears to listen for sounds, good sense of smell, and one difference is that foxes don't do tricks. Then we talked about foxes and listened to their sounds on the radio. My teachers knew a lot about foxes. There are red foxes that are orangish-yellowish and gray foxes that are brownish-grayish. Then we got a snack. It was peanuts, dog bones, marshmallows and m&m's AND apple juice. You could have cranberry juice, but I never tried that before. I only ate some of the snack - one girl thought the dog bones were REAL dog treats, so I didn't eat them. Then we went on a hike outside. We found 5 or 6 fox trackses and fox POOP! But we didn't see any foxes. I had fun and I really liked it."
The boys said bye to the turtles and we headed out to go on with the rest of our day.
"Can we do this again, momma?"
"Sure, honey."
3 comments:
It is a good thing. I know your feelings, though. You had a mama who followed the bus to school on your first day.
Be brave, friend, the first steps are the biggest. Let G's response to the adventure guide you forward with confidence. She is in God's hand, even when she can't reach out and touch yours or her brother's.
Your little girl is growing up. It also shows that she is ready for this next step as well b/c she was excited and wanted to do it again. That doesn't mean that Momma and Pappa are ready but at least she is showing she wants to learn new things and is OK on her own.
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