Excited. Very excited. Really, really, really excited. These are just a few of the words I could use to describe our feelings yesterday morning as we took Edward in to his preschool orientation. He wore his new first day of school shirt, put on his backpack, and got his lunchbox ready, despite the fact that we were only going over there for a 90 minute presentation. Did I mention that he was excited?
When we got to his school he said, and I quote, “Is that my school? It’s soooooo big!” This was strange to me, as the building was significantly smaller than his sister’s school. I’m not sure what size he was expecting it to be, perhaps the size of his room or maybe the size of the toy Playskool school that he likes to play with, but he was clearly thrilled with the massively normal size of his preschool, so we agreed with him about the immensity of it all and then walked through the humongously average doors.
Once inside we got some good news and some bad news. The good news? He has his own cubby. The room is full of toys that he loves, like cars and playdough and a kitchen set, all of which he played with extensively. The bad news? Kids are not allowed to open doors. I think I have mentioned this before, but Edward’s favorite thing on Earth is to open and close doors. And by favorite I mean “will punch a stranger at Barnes & Noble if they open a door he wanted to open.” Everyone please pray for the first teacher that prevents my son from opening a door.
Back to the good news, there is a great playground! And (and this is super cool) something called “The Motor Room.” The Motor Room is an indoor playground of sorts. It has a slide, and a swing that has many different swing attachments, and fun cars, and all sorts of exciting indoor activities that are really outdoor activities. I don’t know how we lucked into a motor room, but we’re not arguing. This place is awesome!
The teachers (there are eight of them for the ten kids in the class) led us through a typical day, and we ended with a snack that included homemade donuts. I don’t know what your perfect preschool is, but I don’t think I can come up with many improvements for this place. Maybe extra parent donuts…
Oh, oh, oh! I almost forgot! They do book orders! Can I get an “aw yeah” for book orders? My favorite part of elementary school, hands down, was book orders. I remember picking out the books, I remember waiting for them to come, and I remember the uncontainable joyous thrill of seeing those boxes waiting in the classroom for us on some random morning and watching the teacher open them up and start handing out our books. Ruby’s elementary school does not do book orders, which I have previously been sad about, but now I have been given a second chance to relive my childhood. Bonus!
His actual first day is today, and I do not yet know how that is going to go. He gets to ride the bus. He gets to be there without his parents. It will be different. I’m sure there will be stories. Meet me back here and I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow.