Preschool

When looking forward to our child care situation for this school year last spring, Josh and I started to look at day cares and preschools in our area.  After the boys failed out of day care last year, I was a little leery about them being with people other than family and making sure they gave them a good chance to adjust, but I also knew it was time for them to start interacting with kids their own age.  We met with a couple of preschools in the area and decided that we really like one that was close to our house and Josh's parents house.  We paid our deposit and moved on since the boys wouldn't start until September.

This summer I tried to find activities that would bring them around kids their age.  We went to the Greenlight Studio in Portland, they took a gymnastics class, they hung out with a fellow camp staffers daughter, we went to playgrounds, parks and museums to try to get them to interact more with other kids.

And then last week, they started school.  Since it is preschool and not day care they have class from 9AM to 11:30AM, which means Josh's mom drops them off and picks them up after school.  So I left for my first day back to work, the same day that they headed to school.

The first day they went in for an hour with just one other little girl, and all three cried pretty much the whole time.  I had the worst Mommy guilt in the world, throwing my babies into the big world all by themselves and I am not even the one able to see them off!

They have gone back a few times now and my mother in law sends me a text after each drop off and pick up, and each one gets better and better.  They are slowly adjusting to the routine and becoming more comfortable with the people around them.

It makes me feel great to know that they are adjusting much quicker to the new situation and that means they are in great hands who understand their needs and respond to them in a calm and reassuring way.

They even showed off their "homework" to the other kids in class and played independent of each other at class yesterday.

I am so happy with our decision to start them in preschool and can already see changes in behavior and they are trying to say new words with increasing frequency.  I just love watching my babies grow up and really feel this time like we made the right choice in our children's care and education.