Party of 5: Tyler Started Preschool!!

Yes, yes, it's April, not September, and Tyler is just now starting preschool. There are good reasons.

1) In September, he wasn't ready for preschool. I didn't want to push him, knowing that he would just cling on to me (or David) as we headed out the door.

2) The preschool we were thinking of in September was very part-time, and with issue no.1 to consider, it wasn't worth the struggle.

3) I just recently visited a Mandarin immersion preschool as an option for both kids, mostly for Vincent, since we took him out of the Saturday Chinese school. Once there, they recommended Tyler go 2 days, since it'll be better for him to adjust, and I was really impressed with the school. They allow kids to start any time during the school year, so there you have it!

Tyler started this morning, and will go back again on Friday with Vincent. On Wednesdays, Tyler also gets to participate in the Tumble Bus. That was the selling point we tried to use on him to get him excited about going.

We do believe that he is now ready for preschool, but we still wanted to make sure that he feels comfortable with the new environment. A few weeks ago, I took both boys there to pay the tuition, and to show them the school, hoping the first day would go smoother.

He did seem totally fine when we walked in. He had seen the place before, so he didn't cling on to us. He followed the teacher to his cubby and put his things in. Then, she took him to his hook to hang up his coat. Next, it was circle time. That's when he lost it. We did our best to comfort him, reminded him of the Tumble Bus, and assured him that I was coming back very soon to pick him up. I think the part about coming back soon was what helped him let out. And, when he did, there were no more tears, he let his teacher take his hand, and off he went.

He has his lunchbox, backpack, and train hat. Ready to head out the door.