Dylan's First Day Of Preschool

Dylan started preschool yesterday at the School of Guppies in Kaysville.  We went to a little open house the day before and were quite impressed.  It's at her house, but she's got the basement all done up to look like a classroom.  It's very cute.  Then she has a swingset in the backyard so they can have recess.  I knew she would do a good job, but her setup is great! Teacher Jana loves kids and was so cute with Dylan.  I think that's exactly what he needs - someone who believes in him and thinks he's a great kid.  He's got such great potential, but seems to act out when others think he will.  I can't figure it out, but when he wants to be good, he's an angel.  She made totes for each of the kids to bring things to and from school in.  She also had a little "I Spy" game that the kids played where they found teacher Jana, George the Guppy (the mascot), the bathrooms, their tote and cookies and milk (they were shaped like fish).  Anyway, it was darling!  

Yesterday afternoon I pulled into the driveway to drop Dylan off and he told me I didn't need to walk him in - he would be fine.  He's so dang independent.  Teacher Jana asked that we walk the children at least to the top of the stairwell so she makes sure they all get there safely so I took him that far, got my goodbye hug and kiss and watched my big boy walk confidently down the stairs and in the door.  

When I pulled back into the driveway to pick him up two hours later, he was playing on the swingset.  Jana said he did great and was so cute with the other kids.  As he walked towards me, Jana's 3-year-old latched onto him and gave him a big hug goodbye.  He wrapped his arm around her as if he were her older brother and told her goodbye in a very deep "boy voice".  It was so sweet!  She must've really taken to him to be so attached already.  He really is a natural leader and a kind soul.  He loves others and is very protective of his friends and family.  

They made fruit loop necklaces with a bear on it that says "school's beary fun" for their art project.  They have music time, story time, art time...I don't know what the schedule is exactly, but she's broken the day up very well so they don't get bored.  She sends home a little folder in his tote with homework in it every day. Trying to convince Dylan that we were supposed to do homework at home was a bit of a process. He said, "No, that's my work from school. I'm supposed to do it at school." Try defining the word homework to a 4-year-old. Anyway, he finally gave in and decided we could work on it together. The first homework sheet was to count the number of animals on the playground and to color the picture. He counted the animals without a problem (although a couple were hiding so we counted a few times to make sure we found them all). Now we're working on coloring. Dylan is capable of coloring, but hasn't been too motivated by it the way some kids are. His coloring papers from church usually are blank or look like they did when he was in nursery. A couple scribbles and he's done. Now cutting and gluing, he loves, but coloring, not so much. I told him we were going to work on coloring his homework and staying in the lines. He's doing much better, but acted like it was quite the chore. It's probably a good thing that we have until Tuesday for his next class - it might take us all weekend to get one piece of paper colored! His teacher likes to send homework home so they get used to doing homework after school. I guess these days kids get quite the load of homework in kindergarten.  

Anyway, I'm quite impressed and think Dylan will do well in that environment.  Hopefully we'll be ready for the big, scary elementary school next year.  I'm sure Dylan will be ready, but I may not be prepared to handle it that soon.  Yikes, my kids are growing up!