Preschool!

Not sure how he's suddenly old enough, but our baby just started preschool!  

There's a wonderful preschool across the street from our neighborhood that pretty much all of our friends' & family's kids in the area have attended/are attending.  So, in the day of crazy preschool entrance competition, I took my sister in law's advice and signed Mason up a year and a half ago when we decided to move to Rancho Bernardo.  Sure enough, this past spring I got a congratulatory email that Mason was "accepted"!

Since it's a 2-year-old program, it's more of an introduction to a classroom structure than anything.  It's only 2 days a week for an hour and a half, during which time they have circle time, arts & crafts, play on the playground and have a snack.  Being a family with 2 full-time working parents, I thought preschool would never be an option for us, but we've been very fortunate to have Opa, BG and Beth who are willing to help with pickup & drop off.

Last week they had a parent night for parents to go, minus the kids, and hear about the school, all the activities they provide for families throughout the year, and meet our children's teachers.  The following day they had meet the teacher day for the kids, so I took a few hours off from work and took Mason.

Just inside the entrance, had to get a picture of this one.  It was a little bright :)

Mason was, of course, immediately drawn to the back corner shelving which housed loads of cars and trucks.  Notice the cute name tags?  They're on all the kids backs b/c they try to pull them off if they're in front :)

Finally lured him away from the trucks for a bit to play with his second favorite toys, balls, and got to meet some of his new classmates.  There are 10 total kids in each class, and 2 teachers plus 2-3 helpers.

After we'd spent a bit playing with his new friends and meeting his sweet teachers, we hit the playground for a few minutes before I had to drop him back off with Miss Beth and head back to work.

All of the 2 year olds are to bring a bucket with them each day, which holds an extra pair of clothes and diapers/wipes if they still use them.  To get Mason excited about school, we went to Target together and picked out the bucket and decorations, and then came home and decorated it together.  He, again shockingly, chose Cars and sports ball stickers, and I let him go to town!  He was so proud of his decorations, and as you can see once we were done with the bucket, the sticker fun continued on papers around the house :) 

Tuesday was his first official day of school, so I took some time off from work to take him.  He did GREAT - it was pretty chaotic in the classroom (there were a few screamers who'd never been separated from their moms before, poor things), and they encouraged us to make the drop off quick so as not to prolong the process.  So I took him back to the corner with the trucks he loved, and gave him a kiss goodbye.  He got pretty sad when he realized I was leaving, but one of his teachers was sitting right next to him so I knew he was in great hands.  And sure enough, when Opa picked him up at the end of class, he was happy and didn't want to leave.

 

Beth told me he cried again today when she left him, but picked up a happy and smiling little boy and the teachers said his tears didn't last long.   Although I'm sad to not be there for him every day he goes, I know he's in great hands and having a blast!