School daze

John, heading out with mom and dad on his first day of (pre)school! (with his Tatonka backpack from Boffo!)

One of the biggest changes to our life lately has been John starting school. It's actually the Best Start universal preschool program - a 2.5 hour, five-day-a-week program funded by the province through the city. Needless to say, he LOVES it. He was so ready for school, and it's just the right amount of time for a little guy. He comes home pooped, but with lots of stories to tell about "the boys." He loves it so much, weekends have become a very dark time for him. One Saturday morning, he even tried to convince me to take him to school, because the school would be lonely.

It's held at our local school, which would normally be convenient, but our school has been torn down for rebuilding, so he's in the holding school, which is a slightly longer walk. I'm getting lots of exercise! So far, it's seven kids - all boys, with three more working their way through the system. Unfortunately, there's a lot of red tape involved, so if you aren't willing to push, and can't find the right person to call, it could take a long, long time to get in. But apparently, they only need seven kids to secure the program funding, so the teachers are delighted. They both get to keep their jobs!

It's a really great program, and apparently, John is doing well. His first day, one of the teachers said he was "an absolute joy" and really funny. They also said he was extremely good at sharing. Though I found out later that they may have meant in relation to where they thought he would be. One of the teachers told me a couple weeks later that they were very concerned about John before they met him, because he's the only oldest child in the class, and had been an only child (gasp!) for most of his life, so they were anticipating a rough social adjustment for him. So they were really pleased when he turned out to be so kind and sociable. All the others are babies - some of quite large families - so he's definitely the odd man out. And boy, does it show.

We're allowed to peek, so I go early some days to see what he's up to. I've discovered that it's a very bad feeling when your kid is the class freak. He's definitely inherited his dad's "free spirit" genes. One day, they were playing with giant blocks, as a group. Class was ending, so the teacher said "Ok, everyone, let's clean up the blocks!" All the other kids suddenly morphed into a swarm of busy little bees, piling these huge blocks back on the shelf. My kid watched for a minute, then grabbed a cloth and started wiping the blocks. He squealed "I'm cleaning the blocks!" with a look of sheer delight that he had cheated the system, by using the OTHER meaning of clean. Another day, they were playing marching band. Every kid had a cute little instrument - a little drum or a shaker - and they were marching around the room in single file. All of them, except John, of course. He had his little drum, but couldn't care less about the marching band. He was playing with the doll house instead. But as the little band rounded the corner and approached him, he leaped to his feet, spread out his arms and yelled "Stop!! The light is red!!" And this obedient little group actually stopped. And they stayed there, until John announced that the light was green again. And of course, all the other moms were staring at me. I wanted to crawl under my miniature chair and die.

I know he does some bad things. I walked in one day after he had stolen another boy's puzzle. (He looooves puzzles - they have the rigid wooden kind, which are easier to handle, and apparently he plays with them constantly.) At daycare, he would have gotten a time out. Here, he got a deep discussion about feelings, and how he had made the other boy feel sad. It seemed to hit home. John looked like he was about to cry.

I try not to go early a whole lot anymore. It's too embarrassing. But they say he's doing well, and I'm going to trust them. I know they do discuss problems with the other moms, like not listening and stuff like that, but every time I ask they say John's doing great. I guess that's really why they have this class - not for them to be perfect pupils, but to teach proper classroom behavior before getting to a real classroom. It's not exactly natural behavior for a 3-year-old. But he seems to generally follow the rules. He gets a smock to play in the paint or water stations. He helps tidy up. He uses his "walking feet". I think he's genetically predisposed to being an oddball, but as long as he does well in school later on, I guess that's ok. And they've managed to get rid of that annoying "NO!!!" he used if he didn't like something. They replaced it with a very calm "of course not." As in, "can you put that away, please?" "Of course not." It's the same thing, but it is definitely less annoying, which is a step in the right direction.

It's such a short program, it's actually a big pain in the butt for me to have him in there. Between getting everyone dressed and organized and out the door, and there and back again, it really uses up most of every morning. There was so little interest, they cancelled the afternoon session, and rolled everyone into the morning anyway, so switching timeslots isn't an option either. But the benefit to him way, way outweighs the cons for me. Besides, it's fun hearing all about his day when I pick him up. He likes to talk about his snack. One day, they had milk, cookies and apple. "I didn't eat my apple," he said. "Only cookies." Another day, they had rice crispie squares, but he didn't know what they were called (and I wasn't going to tell him, so he couldn't ask for them!) But for the next two days, I heard all about this mystery cake/cookie/cracker that was "so much yummy!" The other day, I was a little startled when he said they got chips for their snack, until further questioning revealed that the chips came with cheese and "sauce" and were shaped like triangles. In other words, nachos.

Anyway, Joan has become a squirmy worm. I'm going to try getting her to sleep. Hope you all enjoy the new pictures and videos. I know I've kind of been ignoring the blog lately, but I'll try to get back on the ball!