Carter's First Day

This week is Carter's orientation week for his first year of preschool at the Montessori School. Orientation week kicked off yesterday with a 45 minutes individual meeting with his teacher, Mary. Today, tomorrow, and Friday the new students are in the classroom from 9am until 11am (normal hours are 9am to noon). For those not familiar with Montessori, the classrooms have multiple ages and the primary classrooms consist of ages 3, 4, and 5 (two years of preschool and kindergarten). Teah was in Mary's classroom last year as a 4 year old and will continue to be in her classroom, with Carter, as a 5 year old this year. Since this week is for new students only, Carter has been on his own without his sister.

I was a little nervous going into this week with Carter because he has always been pretty attached to me as well as not really being a fan of being in large groups of children. Anything over 5 or 6 kids has been a challenge for him in the past when we attended gymnastics class, library story time, etc. Thankfully, Carter is familiar with Mary and the classroom since Teah was there all last year, so that's at least a good start. His meeting with Mary yesterday went well. I stayed for a few minutes while Mary started giving Carter lessons on the "work" of his choice and then I left the classroom to go to the office for 15 minutes or so. Carter did a great job and seemed excited for today. He told me that his favorite lesson was the "tong work" where he uses a child-sized set of tongs to move small wooden animals from one bowl to another.

This morning I made his favorite breakfast before preschool - french toast. I even used cinnamon bread instead of regular bread to make it extra special :) Robert is on vacation this week, so I have been able to fully concentrate on Carter and his transition. Drop-off went well this morning. I stayed in the coat room while Carter put his slippers on and went off into the classroom to start doing some of the great work he learned about yesterday. While he was in the classroom I was thankful to have the distraction of the parent's coffee with Pam (the director of the school). I picked him up on the playground at 11am. I found him happily playing on the jungle gym and the minute he saw me he started crying and hid under the structure. I think this is just his way of dealing with the change, because he said he didn't want to stay and play, but that he didn't want to leave either. Mary told me that Carter had a few difficult periods in the classroom during transition times. When it was time for meeting he cried and was taken into the quiet room where one of the teachers helped him to feel better so that he could rejoin the class. He also had a crying episode on the playground when he was trying to play in the little house that was full of other children.

So, his first day wasn't as bad as it could've been, but wasn't great either. I really think that his insecure feelings when it comes to transition times will get significantly better when Teah is in the classroom with him. I told her today (with Carter out of earshot) that Carter had a tough time at meeting today and asked her if she could help him out next week. I suggested that maybe he could sit next to her during meeting and she told me matter-of-factly that Nathan and Maddie sat next to each other last year and they are brother and sister. So, we have two more Teah-free days to get through and then I'm hoping things will start looking up.

As for my transition, I was less emotional than I thought I would be, but I think it will really hit me next week when I drop both of my babies off! I snapped a few pictures yesterday and today and wanted to share - here is the link to the album: Carter's First Week