Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to School We Go

Our little boy is officially a schoolboy now. He started pre-K on Monday, and has not stopped talking about it since.
We were fortunate with our first day experience. In the state-run preschool (our program), they stagger the start days for the new kids. So the returning kids start after Labor Day, and then they add two a day during the second week. John and Ethan spent last week practicing their new "routine" for school, getting up at the new time (6:30) and actually biking over to school to watch the kids go in.

I also was able to ask his teacher if John could bring Ethan over one day to see his classroom and meet her, which they did. So, by the time Monday rolled around, going to school was old hat. No tears, only coming back once for an extra kiss. He even hung up his own coat and put his (very big) Spiderman backpack into his new cubby all by himself.

Ethan's preschool meets every day for two and a half hours. During that time, they actually have many different classes — gym, Spanish, music, art. It's a very nice program, made even better by the fact that it's free. (Everyone should have access to such a good, free, pre-K program.) On his first day, they had gym class, and our little boy — who has had absolutely no interest in any type of sport activity except running around — was hooked. All afternoon we heard tales about gym class and Mr. Sykes (sp?).

"Mr. Sykes rides his bicycle to keep his body strong."

"I told Mr. Sykes that I take swimming classes."

"Mr. Sykes says exercise keeps you healthy."

Yesterday, two of our neighbor girls started in Ethan's class (and another starts this morning). John said he seemed a little overwhelmed when they got to school because the two neighbor girls and a little girl for church were all there calling "Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. Good morning Ethan." and wanting to talk to him. But he bravely marched into the fray and said hello to everyone before going into class.

So I hope this begins a life-long love affair with school. We're off to a good start at least.