Forest's First Day and Beyond

Forest is officially a preschooler. On the first day he was raring to go and so excited to get to school. But y’all, his preschool is massive.  Everything is bigger in Texas and  I swear there are more people running around that campus than there are populations of some small towns. I think there are maybe 400-600 students enrolled between the Toddlers-Pre-K classrooms. 

The doors are locked until 9 AM at which point you can escort your child to their classroom. While the 3+ year olds normally have a car line, during the first week it’s standard that every kiddo be hand delivered to their classroom by their caregiver so basically there was a pack of people and then a small child stampede rushing inside once the doors were opened for business. 

At that point, Forest got pretty overwhelmed and held on tightly to my hand. The first week, they are ok with parents walking into the classroom with their tot but after that they really want you to just say a quick goodbye before ushering them into the door. I didn’t expect Forest to have any issues so was surprised when I had to pry him off of my leg upon leaving. It was heartbreaking to leave him crying in his teacher's arms but I knew lingering around would only make it worse. 

The policy is that if your child is crying at drop off then they want you to hang around in the lobby for 10-15 minutes before leaving the premises just to make sure they calm down, otherwise they’ll call you in to reassure them before trying to exit again. I was surprised that amongst all of the toddlers and 2 year olds I seemed to be the only parent required to do this on the very first day of school! 

After my 10-15 minute wait time they walkie talkied the classroom to check on him and I was assured that he calmed right down and was doing ‘perfect!’ so I was dismissed to leave. Phew! I was relieved but still a little surprised that he got so upset in the first place. Especially since Jonathan got home from Angola that morning and we were very careful about Forest not seeing him beforehand because I was worried that might cause some major separation anxiety to be taken away from his daddy after not seeing him for 30 days. Oh well. 

Jonathan came with me to pick him up and Forest’s face was so shocked and happy and he kept yelling ‘Daddy’s back from Ango-WA!’. 

His teacher assured us he did amazing and the whole way home he went on and on about how he learned to roll play doh into a ball. So stinkin cute. 

The next time at drop off he seemed really excited once again but I braced myself for the resistance at the door. Instead he let go of my hand and marched right inside without so much as a backward glance at momma. Terrific for him but I was wishing I’d gotten a goodbye hug at least. 

When I picked him up from school he just looked so happy and grown up and his teacher exclaimed ‘He is just the sweetest child in the whole world!’ so that made me feel good. I was a little worried he’d be the kid in class who drove her to drink. Ha! It’s still early times so that might end up being the case but at least he’s off to a good start. So far we are both loving this preschool thing!