Monday, 30 November 2009

• Help! My Son is Starting Preschool

  Guest Post by Mama TRUE
  

  
  

  Cavanaugh is starting school next week and I am teeter-tottering between tears and anxiety, while telling myself that worry is a time-waster, that I can’t predict what will happen. Still,  the tears and fears, the jittery feeling that means I can’t sit still nor get anything done, the ridiculousness.

  I realize it is a luxury to even have to answer the question of when to start a child in school. Rather than having to time it around maternity leave or my going back to work, we have gotten to wait until we thought Cavanaugh would be ready. But that doesn’t mean this is easy.

  First, we had to figure out what kind of school we might want for him: Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio-Emilia. Did we want structure or imaginative play? How did we feel about him going every single day? Would morning or afternoon be preferable? How many days a week? Could we afford it? How would school affect bedtime? Did he have to be potty trained? What were their discipline policies? When his name finally came up on the waiting list, would he be ready?

  The truth is, we don’t actually know about most of it. Maybe he’ll love being around a bunch of kids (though he never has). Maybe he’ll like the structure of a daily routine (which varies wildly around our house). Maybe he’ll be so tired from school that he’ll go to bed earlier or sleep longer the next morning (and I won’t constantly be saying, “I know it’s light outside but it is not time to wake up").

  But I’m afraid he won’t play with the other kids or they’ll be mean to him. Maybe he’ll get the swine flu or pink eye. He will feel abandoned, he will cry for me, I will miss him.

  When Mike and I went to visit the school, initially, we both loved it. But right before I walked into what would be Cavanaugh’s classroom, I started sobbing. I’d felt the tears catch in my throat as we walked through the gate, before we’d toured the campus. I knew this would be the place I would leave him. And even though he’s been doing it all along, school feels like the first step to his growing up and going, to his having a life away from me.

  And here I am, spending a lot of time on "what if's". I don’t know. I won’t know. And maybe it will suck or he’ll grow to like it, or he’ll run into the classroom on the first day and tell me to go away so he can play. Maybe.

  In the meantime. we need to buy a raincoat and boots, mittens, and pick extra sets of clothes that he’ll keep in his cubby at school. Maybe we’ll go to the library and try to find some books about starting school.

  Do any of you that have already started your kids in preschool have any advice about how to get him (and me) ready for next Tuesday?

  • 4:24 PM
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