Today was Donovan's first day of preschool. We have all been eagerly awaiting this first day of school. Donovan attended a summer camp at his preschool in late May/early June and became familiar with the school, and some of the students and teachers. Then last week we attended a playdate with children from his class.
Donovan was very well rested this morning, ate a great breakfast (as usual), and was ready in plenty of time for a few photos before I drove him to school. The hugs and kisses between he and Aaron lasted quite a while. (Last night Aaron had said, while trying to fall asleep, "Tomorrow during the day, Christine will stay with Donovan, and Mommy will stay with me." (Christine is Donovan's teacher.) And yet, even with that understanding, the goodbye between the two brothers who have been inseparable for the past 4 months, was quite a long one.)
Donovan selected some spots in the front yard to have his photo taken in front of (which I've posted above). When we arrived at his preschool, he seemed a bit quiet, but replied when his teacher greeted him, picked up his name and put it in the basket for attendance, selected a cubby, and hung up his backpack as I unpacked things for his cubby. We then headed back outside, where Donovan headed to the sandbox. He then went right up to his teacher, Christine, and said, "Last week there was no excavator here, but there was one here at summer camp. Do you know where the excavator is?" At first, the teacher said no, there must not be one, but another parent remembered having seen it before. The teacher went to the outdoor supply shed and sure enough...a small excavator was located. Donovan was thrilled, and I was so pleased that he was able to speak up and advocate for himself (well, for an excavator, which is VERY important to him these days.) I then walked over and said, "Okay Donovan I'm going to leave now. I'll be back before lunchtime. Have a great day." He replied, "Bye mom, see you later." And that was it...What a big boy! (Rupert and our wonderful childcare provider, Lisa, can certainly appreciate this goodbye, as they both dealt with close to a year of tears at morning dropoff when Donovan was 2!) I left smiling, watching him totally engaged in the sandbox with two other boys.
I came home to find Aaron playing with his new school bus (Grandma gave Donovan a book about school and Aaron a large school bus). Aaron was loading Fisher Price people onto the bus, and telling me that he could fit "4 more passengers" into it. We spent quite some time playing with the bus, and then ran some errands. Aaron was my big helper at the bank, children's clothing resale shop (dropping off winter clothing from when Donovan was a baby) and a ladies' resale shop. Then home and into the pool until it was time for me to pick up Donovan.
On the ride home, Donovan told me all about his day. He said, "Mommy, guess how many kids are in my class?" I guessed 5, but he said, "no, more. There are 17 kids, and 2 teachers and there were 3 mommies. (The preschool is a parent co-op, so each day one parent of a chid in the class helps out. For the first day of school they had more parents. We've arranged our volunteering to fall around Mid Autumn Festival, and Chinese New Year so that two of our volunteering days can focus on Chinese culture/holidays.)
Donovan also told me some of the things he did today: played with trains, blocks, light table, sandbox, playground, and ran through the sprinkler. (In fact the teacher mentioned just before I arrived she had to hose Donovan off because he, and three other boys, went straight from the sprinkler to the sandbox...one can only imagine!)
Right now, he's trying to fall asleep, and keeps remembering things he wants to tell me.
What an exciting first day!
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