First day of preschool

Oh, the nerves..

 

..and the excitement!

 



 

Wilson had his first week of preschool this week and he is loving it! You may remember a little about Kurinomi yochien from my previous post, Choosing a preschool. They've been doing fun stuff all week. Wednesday was his weekly swimming lesson which he loved. On Thursday they had a special shopping day where they pretended to be customers and shopkeepers and went shopping in their classroom. I love that the teachers greet him each day with a big smile and a hug and at the end of the day there are more hugs and sayonaras and high fives. It's just the kind of positive place I wanted for him. His school day is from 10-2:30 every day which I think is pretty perfect because Leo and I still get our Wilson time in the mornings and afternoon.

 

The week was a quick progression in good feelings toward school. Tuesday was his first day and there were tears all around. The first were from Wilson when Leo and I left, then Leo started up and was patting Wilson's car seat as we drove away and that's what put me over the edge. It got better every day, and today when I dropped him off he gave me a smile and said, 'Bye Mom, see you when you come back!'  Perfect!

 

Leo's been acting like the big cheese on errands while Wilson's at school so I think he's enjoying the few hours in the spotlight. When we pick Wilson up from school the boys get pretty giggly playing together for a bit - I compared it to when dogs see each other at a dog park and get all jumpy and excited to someone yesterday and they gave me a funny look, but that's kind of what they're like!

 

 

Every day, the teachers write down what he did, how he ate and napped and stuff like that. This is what it looks like.

 

 

The assistant principal, who speaks really great English, always comes out to meet us and translates the notes for me so I know how he did. So far they say he's happy, relaxed, naps well and has been eating about half of his Japanese lunch every day. Friday is 'happy lunch' day, so I sent him PB & J from home.

 

Here are some of his school supplies. They fill up the water bottle with green tea or water during the day. Notice the chopsticks in between the fork and spoon. They sent a picture of him using them the first day and it looked like he was pretty much just stabbing the rice.

 

 

Here is a washcloth they use at lunch. I had to be told to send it wet every day because I'd never seen these before.

(They were out of Thomas so cutie Hello Kitty it is!)

 

 

And here's a book with some pictures that gets sent home every day.

 

 

The language hasn't been a big issue for him. The teachers said that he is following directions and doing what the other kids do. Thursday at dinner I asked him a question and he answered, 'hai' which means yes in Japanese. Nathan and I were pretty shocked!

 

We're so happy that Wilson likes his school and pretty proud of the little guy, too.