First day of "school"!

First day of "school"!
(4/1/11)


It has never been a secret to most people who know the family that Jacob is VERY VERY shy and timid. He gets it honestly from him father and his fathers family, but even though I know that it is a common occurrance with kids in the family it is still hard to deal with sometimes. I was the type of kid that would barrel into a situation full force almost like "look at me, the party can begin" so when dealing with a child that is almost to the opposite extreme with trying new things, and going out on his own even at playgrounds I have had to adapt and become very understanding and empathetic to his feelings.

That being said Paul and I also see the importance of helping Jacob to overcome some of these feeling of fear and shyness by exposing him to different situations while he is young so that like his father he doesn't miss 65 days of kindergarten and wake up and hide from his parents so as not to have to go to school at 5 years old (yes true story, poor Paul). I have always participated with my counties "parks and Recreation" centers by going to many craft, play, and sports classes for Jacob and Andrew. However once you are four years old ALL of the classes are now WITHOUT parent participation. Since Jacob isn't going to go to preschool I want him to be exposed to other kids and other "classroom" type situations.

While looking through the spring catalog I found that the local Community Center had a class for 7 kids that was a hour and a half in the morning two days a week. It isn't "preschool" in terms of teaching things it is just play, craft, and maybe a song. So we thought what the heck it is pretty cheap and could potentially be a great way to get Jacob acclimated to being without me. I of course didn't sleep the whole night before, because visions of crying, screaming, escaping, and running away played in my mind over and over.

The morning of his first day was great, Jacob was excited (I had been talking about school for about 2 weeks in preparation). We had packed his snack and picked out his school clothes the night before. We dropped Andrew off at his Aunts (I figured I needed both hands in case of screaming or running occurred) and we were off.

When we showed up Jacob had his own cubby with a basket and place to hang his jacket, the teacher greeted us and talked to us a little bit. Jacob spent the whole time literally so close to me that you would think he was trying to climb in my skin. The tears started and I could see that he was getting VERY anxious. We found a cool toy to play with and then I told him that I had to go get Andrew and that I would be back "in a few minutes". He seemed ok with that and told me "OK MOM" and gave me a kiss.....

Well an hour and a half later I came back to pick him up and a very happy boy came jumping out of the class telling me how much fun "school" was and he turned to the teacher and said "Bye teacher see you next week!"....

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!! You mean it worked??? I am literally speechless! The teacher told me that although he didn't participate in any of the group activities that she considers it a HUGE success because he didn't cry and did play with some of the other kids when it was toy time.

So we have 5 more classes for this month and if it continues to be a success I will sign up for this every month to help him get out there and meet from new friends!

*I didn't get a picture of his first day, I was too stressed and forgot my camera! So maybe next week