Lily's Pre-K Teacher

For a little while now, Lily has had some fear towards talking to men or older boys, especially those she’s never met (but certainly including those she’s known forever). One of her reasons for not responding when they talk to her is, “I don’t know them!” even if it’s completely not true. We’ve never pushed her to talk to anyone she didn’t want to, even if it seemed completely unreasonable to US or a little embarrassing. I’m sure the day will come all too soon when we WISH she still wasn’t talking to boys!

Well, about a week or two ago, I finally told her that her teacher for this year was named Mr. Scott. She didn’t comment until a few days later when out of the blue she said, “I don’t want a man to be my teacher. I’m not gonna talk to him.” We’ve had a few discussions about it since then. Then last night, after everyone was thoroughly scrubbed and tucked in and – we thought – asleep, Lily comes downstairs and we hear her little voice call out, “I don’t want to go to school tomorrow because my teacher is a boy and I don’t want to talk to him.”

You can imagine how my heart went out to her, picturing her laying in bed worrying about the next day. So I sat next to her on the steps and reassured her that no one was going to make her talk to anyone, including her teacher, until she was ready. I told her she could just say, “I’m shy” but then she made me promise I would say that for her, because duh silly mom, that would involve TALKING to him.

So this morning we get to school and Mr. Scott is busy trying to contain and calm this little boy who is SCREAMING HYSTERICALLY when we walk into Lily’s classroom. Not the most encouraging first glimpse into her first day. The little boy ended up running OUT of the room somehow and Mr. Scott darted after him – all this happened in like the first 10 seconds after we walked in – so there we stood, just us and the other little kids and Lily’s assistant teacher, a wonderful NON-BOY named Miss Sylvia.



Lily loved her immediately.

Later, when Mr. Scott walked back in – leaving said screaming boy to spend a couple more minutes screaming with his parents, instead – I told Lily’s teachers about her particular hesitation, as I promised Lily, and they both agreed they wanted Lily to open up on her own terms, when she was ready. Mr. Scott even took a step AWAY from Lily after saying hi and watching her recoil, which I found particularly encouraging. He didn’t just SAY he understood, he understood.

In the car later after picking up the kids, I asked them how their days went. After all the non-specific answers (“I didn’t cry,” from Jacob, “There were lots of ponies,” from Lily), I started asking more detailed questions. Did you eat all your lunch? What did they give you for snack time? Who did you sit next to? Did you go potty? Were there a lot of kids in your class? And then, slipped in at the end there, Did you talk to Mr. Scott?

Without missing a beat, Lily piped right up: “Yes, I got to know him!”

I couldn’t have hoped for a better answer. She got to know him! It was so sweet and so funny and such a RELIEF, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. She went on to tell me that she talked to him a lot – and to Miss Sylvia and all the kids in her class and at lunch. This was way more than I could have hoped for, and I am so encouraged that she is making progress on her own time, as she’s ready. I hope the next day she goes back to school, she remembers that she “got to know him” and doesn’t pull back into her shell. Even though I know this must have been hard for her, I’m so glad she had this learning experience and overcame her fear in the end.

1st Day of Pre-K and Preschool

Today, Jacob and Lily started Preschool and Pre-K, respectively.



Look how big they are!





Ready to go, despite the rain.



Jacob was all, "See ya, Ma!" the moment he saw toy trucks. He plopped right down next to this other little boy, and said, "Hi, I'm Jacob. What's your name?" Have I ever mentioned that he is the sweetest little boy EVER.?



(First day of school means 4 pigtails for Lily!)



Lily was a bit more tentative b/c she knew her teacher was a man, and she's at a stage where she is a bit reluctant to speak to males in general. I told her she didn't have to say anything to him until she was ready ("But I'll NEVER be ready!"), and that she could only talk to her female assistant teacher for now if she wanted to. That did the trick and she settled right in. Hooray for Miss Sylvia!

Related:
1st day of school this past February. Jacob looks so much older now!

Preschool Random...

Lily came home from preschool singing, "We all live in a yellow submarine..." Hmm, wonder if that's available on Netflix?

Apparently, Lily and a boy named Max bumped heads (his head, her cheek) in class today, and they thought it left a bruise on her cheek. I had to sign my first incident report confirming I'd been told, though after I took a look, I was pretty sure the mark on her cheek had already been there ;)

I think Jake has a girlfriend. Her name is Eva and she's in his lunch time at school. She's this super-cute red-head always hugging him and chasing him and looking out for him - funny part is, she's probably a good year or two older than him! Jacob, the ladies man...

Day Three...The Meltdown

Today's drop-off didn't go as well as the first two. Lily had a meltdown similar to the one she had in Sunday School yesterday. Lots of screaming, lots of grabbing me, lots of pleading. She hasn't done this in months, so I was a little surprised to see it yesterday (even though I knew she woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday). Not sure why it happened again today. She was still crying when I left, and we'll see how long it lasted once I go back to pick her up after lunch. I was happy with how her teacher handled it, which I guess is the most you can ask for.



Jake's head teacher is back from vacation, so he got to meet her today. Wonder how long it will take her to learn Jacob-speak? I forgot to restock his diaper supply at school after getting this note sent home Thursday...oops!

Took Sam to the grocery store on the way home - it's SO NICE to just drop in for whatever I need, just me and her. Now she's napping and I'm off to clean the house for Small Group tonight. We're going through "A Praying Life" by Paul Miller. Looking forward to tonight!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lily's first school project: Valentine's



She was very happy when I told her she could put one in each of her friend's bins when we get to school tomorrow. "Oh, that will be very nice!" She loves doing little things to make people happy, with no thought of anything in return.

2nd Day of (Pre)School

I took Sam to Pathmark to score some more free cereal (you don't even want to know how many boxes I've gotten this week - oh by the way, did you see the part where I'm famous?), then to infant story time at the library - it's once a month and it just happened that today, I had just my infant! at infant story time!! It was wonderful. Not the part where she fell over and bonked her head on the carpet and I had to distract her with lots of bright shiny markers. But the time together was soooo nice.

So is this blogging time. LOVE IT.

From their first day:

1st Day of (Pre)School

Yesterday, Lily and Jacob started preschool.



Lunchboxes in hand - along with bananas for breakfast in the car! Can't get over how similar their faces and even their banana grips are.



The cute little schoolhouse entrance:



Lily with her teacher (and her ever-changing number of hair ties):



Little boy in his big-boy classroom:



Of course, the first toys he pulled out were the cars and the car ramp:



Moving on to his second favorite toy - a ball!



Meanwhile, back at the ranch, little Samantha had the place all to herself:



I think she quite enjoyed herself ;)



When I went back to pick them up, lunch had just finished and all the half-day kids who stay for lunch were playing Ring Around the Rosie. You can see Lily and Jake next to each other.



I watched inconspicuously from the doorway for a few minutes. Every little girl wanted to hold Jacob's hand - uh oh! I think he's the kind of little boy that just looks like he needs help and mothering...sweet little Jacob. But he wasn't too sure about all these girls and was being particular about whose hand he wanted to hold (I heard much, "No hands! No hands!" haha).

The next thing I heard was big sister Lily, "I'll help you, Jacob! Jacob, I'll help you!" which just melted my heart. Not only did she notice he was agitated (and was not the SOURCE of his agitation), but she stepped in to protect him. SO CUTE!

Here's where they have lunch (that's the director, hanging out while they play):



I love that Jacob and Lily get to have lunch together and see each other for a little bit while at school, even though they're in different classes. That was a nice surprise - though that's a little more pressure on me to make sure their lunches are identical, because THEY WILL NOTICE.

Here's an e-mail I sent to a couple people yesterday:

The kids had a great start to their first day of school!

This morning, I made sure to remove the princess tattoo from Jake's arm and to brush any knots out of Lily's hair. They were both excited but a little sleepy since I had to wake them up to get them there on time. They each had most of a banana in the car - breakfast on the run (thanks, Aunt Ilse!) - but snack time at school is not long after they arrive (crackers, dry cereal, etc).

When I brought Lily into her class, for a moment she looked like she was going to panic, but then I told her I'd come right back for "special kisses" (fishy kiss - lips, eskimo kiss - nose, butterfly kiss - eyes) after dropping off Jacob, and she happily skipped away.

In his class, Jake immediately stripped out of his jacket and made a beeline for the cars (he had asked to bring one from home, but I assured him they'd most likely have a bunch of their own at school), where he happily ignored me and quickly said, "Bye!" when I went over to kiss him.

Back in Lily's class, she gave me kisses and then sat down with her teacher to write her name for labeling her cubby. The day before, she wouldn't say BOO to her teacher when I took her to pick up the registration packet, so I'm glad she met her beforehand and see her classroom and just have some time to process before starting today - I think that really helped.

Hopefully, they'll have a good time and have plenty to tell me on the car ride home!

They both loved it. On the way home, I pumped Lily for information. She told me she learned about the letter T, and when asked what starts with T, she shouted, "Tissue! Train!" and a moment later asked, "Does CHICKEN start with T?" Haha!

She didn't remember any names of kids in her class (or her teacher's name!), but she remembered what the book they read was about (cooking) and what she had for lunch and of course the letter T. Typical Lily...more interested in learning or in activities than in other individuals ;) It was a little harder to get information from Jacob b/c he's not nearly as communicative, but I know he had a great time and they were super excited to go back today.

I got a lot of work done at home, and the only negative was having to wake Sam up from her nap to go pick up the kids from school. Hopefully, we can get her used to starting her morning nap a littler earlier so that won't have to happen every time.

Just before we got home, Lily spotted a T on a road sign, and for some reason, her excitement at that road sign T confirmed in my mind any lingering doubt I may have had about our decision to start them in preschool. I couldn't have been happier.