Thursday, September 8, 2011

It'll get better...right???

Last night was CoopMan's first night at Central Park Co-Op Preschool. He talked about it all day, had his bucket and his supplies ready and jumped at me when I walked through the door after work, ready to head out. We'd had discussions prior to leaving for school, about who is in charge, who he needed to listen to, what was expected of him. I may have forgotten that he's only 2 1/2 years old. He agreed with me on all counts, he was totally ready. First picture taken (well, like 3 pictures since he's a ham) and out the door we went.
Finishing his dinner while posing =)

Once we were in the car, we had MORE discussions on who was in charge, who do you listen to, etc etc etc. Yes, Right and Ok were all of his answers. We pull up to school and screeches from the backseat erupt. He was SO excited. First thing out of the car, we see cousin Sophie. Of course we had to snap a few more pictures. It was OUR first day of school after all.

Cousins! Sophie & Coop

He looks grown up. Make that stop.

Into the classroom we go. Here.We.Go. This is it, he's going to be good, he isn't going to be that kid that acts up or talks back or doesn't listen. Yeah.Freaking.Right. I can say now, that it's the day after, that I've chalked it up to the following: A. He doesn't go to daycare, so doesn't have a ton of interaction with other kids and B. He doesn't really have a structured schedule at home. We do the same thing pretty much every day, but there isn't any rhyme or reason to it. That is going to change, as of today.
He played well with the other kids, but playing is all he wanted to do. When it was time to clean up toys, he did that too. Oh and PS. now when we clean up at home, I'm required to sing the clean up song. Thanks for that Teacher Tina ;) Anyways, when it was time to get down to business, sit and listen, sit and have snack, stand on the blue line for further instructions, he was like a dog being let loose from the kennel after being stuck in there all day. Running around, yelling, you name it, that was Cooper. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I was pouring sweat from chasing him. (I guess we'll call that my workout for yesterday)
Playing...it's his favorite subject in school.


I'm hoping that next week will be better. It can't get worse? Right? RIGHT??? It's an adjustment, for all of us. But, now, we know that we are going to have a little more structure at home. I may even get some damn blue tape and throw it on the kitchen floor and get a bell and ring it at any given moment, just to practice. He will stand on that blue line with the other kids. I'm telling you, he will.
He stood there long enough for me to snap a picture, then he bolted.


I even went as far as making a fun chart with our new daily routine on it, that I will tape up in the kitchen. I need to figure out a sticker system for it, since that worked amazingly for potty training. Anyways, here's to a great school here and to next week being a million percent better than this week!