« In Stazi news | Main | »
March 24, 2005
Yesterday's preschool "assessment" went very well. It turned out to be less of an assessment than more just a chance for us to let Zeke look around at his new classroom and for us to get a brief orientation. He starts on Monday! (Pause for cheering and clapping here.)
Unfortunately, he's in the afternoon class, which means he'll be there from 12:30 to 3:30. This almost precisely coincides with his usual naptime. So, as of this morning, we're adjusting him to a different schedule. Keith (bless him) woke Zeke up at 6:30 AM, two hours before his usual waking time. Then I put him down for his nap around 10:30. Surprisingly enough, he fell asleep and didn't give me any trouble, so maybe this will be easier than we thought. I was also concerned because the past several weeks have been wonderful, with Stazi and Zeke napping at the same time, but about an hour after Zeke fell asleep this morning, Stazi got a little fussy, so I figured I'd try putting her down as well. And, they are now both sleeping like babies. Or preschoolers, whichever the case may be.
We had a brief discussion with one of the classroom teachers about Zeke's potty training. The preschool we've chosen has mixed-age classrooms, so he'll be in with other kids ranging in age from 3 to 6. He'll be one of the youngest kids there. All of the kids have to be potty trained in order to be in the preschool, but obviously the 6-year-olds have fewer problems than the 3-year-olds do. The teachers recommended that we begin encouraging Zeke to take off and put on his own pants before and after using the potty. We did this yesterday and Zeke was very successful, thus proving again that kids are generally far more capable than we give them credit for. They also suggested sending him to school in elastic-waistband pants that are easy to take on and off. Are there people who put their potty-training toddlers in pants that AREN'T easy to take on and off? My God. This was really a no-brainer for us.
Apart from the potty training thing, I think Zeke is completely ready for preschool. We had to literally drag him away when it was time to go home. He really, really liked wandering around the classroom and exploring various little objects they had to play with. He was extremely interested by a tray that had a a large glass bowl, two small glass bowls, a set of tweezers, and some glass beads in it. The teacher asked if he wanted to try using the tweezers to move the beads from the large bowl to the small bowl, and this preoccupied him for the next several minutes. I think he would have stayed there doing it for hours if we hadn't had to leave.
During part of the time we were there, the kids were having storytime, sitting in a big circle while the teacher read a book. Zeke evinced absolutely zero interest in this, preferring instead to roam around the perimeter of the classroom exploring new playthings. I think this is natural, but also perhaps is part of Zeke's personality. It's hard to tell at such an early age, but from what I've seen so far, he prefers playing alone to playing in groups. (I sympathize.) I am hoping that being around the other kids at preschool will help him to become more social, or at least help him to function reasonably well when surrounded by other kids.
Anyway. Monday is the big day, and we are all very excited. More reports to come as events unfold.
Posted by Jan at March 24, 2005 11:59 AM