Pre-school

So long without blogging...is it because we didn't have alot going on? Exactly the opposite, as you might expect, let's start with Joaquin's transition to pre-school...

We got an unexpected phone call in April that a spot had opened up in pre-school, which we had him on a waiting list for and really weren't expecting an opening until summer. Choosing a pre-school had been such a daunting task and our first, first-hand lesson in the inequities of education and how much you earn. Nicer schools seem SO much nicer and you start to question your value of money over how much you value your child. I study all this stuff...I knew that he just needed a good place to play and grow and I was still sucked into the class wars. Logic and years of research finally prevailed and we were soon getting a call from Gid's work based pre-school. We knew he was ready to move...him asking us if the price was right and being able to quote the entire Nick Jr. schedule was evidence enough of that...but it didn't make it any easier.

The first few weeks were hard. He told us he didn't like his teachers and started saying, "but I belong at home." He even started to tell me about a dream he was having in which he was on a rocket ship, but he didn't want to leave me...the first time he has ever talked about a dream and not a huge jump or psych background needed to figure that one out. It got more complicated when he got sick...an inevitability with a new school...but a simple cold lead to an ear infection to a really damaging ear infection, and he ended up sick for almost a full month.

It's now been about 2.5 months and we still have some days when we struggle in the morning, but the move has been so positive for him. He has less interest in TV in general now, his vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and he randomly breaks into songs that we don't teach him. They are having a summer 'camp' session now and last week they had a reptile show, so he got to tell us how much the 'big snake' (read: a python that went across his entire class' laps) tickled.

It's also fun and amazing for us to see how much these little ones already come with. While anti-social might not be the right word, he still has very little interest in playing with other children. They made crowns the other day and he didn't wear his (although he held it) even though all the other kids did. Same with the jumper-wouldn't go in because it was too noisy. I have to admit part of me loves this little stubborn streak of individuality in him.

Photos are his first school photos. When we got these, he said "I look sad."