Preschoolers Already

I'm still trying to figure out how it happened, but apparently my children are now old enough to go to school. Today was the first day of preschool at the Co-Op nursery in our neighbourhood, and my two big boys were amazing. We've been slowly and calmly getting them used to the idea that they're going to school in "September" since the spring, mentioning it here and there, driving past the school, talking about it with friends like Tommy, Cooper and Anika who will all attend with Will and Owen. Its kind of been this mythical event that the boys occaisionally referred to - "In Se'tenber, I go to school."

Last week Mark and I took the boys to meet the two wonderful teachers again, and let them play while we discussed the boys personalities (Surfer Dude Owen and Intense Will), their likes (construction, firefighters, painting, sandbox) and dislikes (thunderstorms, dogs - Owen has a fear of any dog who is not Jack, but more on that another time) and when they would start. I was happy they would start with only 14 of the 24 kids in their class, thinking it would be less overwhelming. Next week, everyone will be in attendance, but at least the boys will be used to it by then.

The other thing I needed to prepare them for was my absence. As many of you know, we spend pretty much every waking hour together, and sometimes the non-waking hours too. They've stayed at friends' houses when I have doctors appointments or need to run some errands, but have never been in a school setting without me. So I was leary of just dropping them off without some preparation, but also didn't want to overwhelm them with the idea of no mummy. Last week we finally started to talk about it in earnest. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Are you guys excited about starting school next week?

Owen: "Yeah! TOYS!"

Me: "That's right, there will be lots of fun toys for you to play with."

Will: "I gonna play with firetruck!"

Owen: "I gonna paint!"

Me: "That's great guys! You're going to have SO much fun! And when I come to pick you up you can tell me everything you played with."

Silence. Two little faces fall.

Owen: "You no gonna stay wid us?"

Me: "Well sometimes I will, but sometimes I'm going to have to go home and get lunch ready for you. Then I'll come and pick you up and we can have lunch all together."

Owen, with a quivering lip: "I no want to cry about you."

Me, with an internal quivering lip: "Oh sweetie, I don't want you to cry about me either."

******

But today was the big day and I think I was much more nervous than they were. But drop off went seamlessly, they happily kissed me goodbye and went back to playing with the various construction vehicles the teachers has ready for them. I was pretty stressed after I left, imaging the tears, although I felt fairly certain they'd be fine. I guess I'm just no used to being without them. I called mid-morning to find out how they were getting on and was told they were being great, having lots of fun and hadn't batted an eyelid at my departure. Excellent. So I'd spent an hour torturing myself for no reason! When I went to pick them up at the end of the morning, they were happy and told me all about the paintings they'd done, the slides they'd slid down and the snack they'd eaten. The teachers told me they played at opposite ends of the room from each other, but would occaisionally go show the other something of interest, ate snack together and then resumed their independence. And of course, they cried the whole way home, wanting to go back to see their teachers. I'm feeling much more confident about tomorrow and I'm sure they are too.

Here's Will in orange and Owen in blue with the backpacks that Great Granny Joan bought them, leaving the house for their first morning of school.


The school requires each child to have a bag with a change of clothes and pull-ups/diapers/underwear that stays on their hook throughout the year. Backpacks are deemed to bulky for the small space, so tote bags are recommended. When my cousin Erica was here on the weekend, she and Granny and I had a grand ol' time decorating a couple of cloth grocery bags for the twins. It was a really fun, creative evening!


Here's granny and Erica with the finished results


And a closer look at our fine handiwork!