Preschool Update

So it seems it's all's well that ends well with this preschool business. I talked to the director via email a couple of times about my concerns, but she was pretty much all "We're awesome, what are you talking about?" Yeah. Long story short I got my money back and I never have to set foot in that place again.

On a much more positive note, I am now doing both homeschool preschool with Emmett, as well as a preschool co-op with some friends from church once a week! We'll all take turns teaching, and it will be Emmett and 4 other boys, all pretty close in age. We had a planning meeting this week and I'm really excited about it...these ladies are all fantastic and I love all the little boys that will be in his "class". I think we're going to have a lot of fun!

I'm doing the homeschool thing Monday thru Friday, just for about 10 minutes a day. We're doing things like colours, letters, numbers, nursery rhymes, etc. He pretty well knows all of that stuff, but it's more about having him practice school skills. He really needs to work on his listening (What 3 year old doesn't, right?), and I'm just now introducing crafts to him - definitely his LEAST favorite part of "preschool"! Each week we're doing a theme based on stuff he's interested in - last week was cows and this week we're learning about bees. He's becoming quite the little expert on beehives and honey! On Friday we're going to make a bee that he can play with, so maybe that kind of craft will interest him a little more.

As terrible as this whole preschool experience has been, I think it really increased my confidence as a mom and reminded me how much I've grown as a mother in the past few years. I was updating Seth's baby book this morning and I pulled out Emmett's for comparison. Seth is just starting to crawl, but Emmett was still a couple of months away from crawling (and 4 lbs heavier!) at this point, and I remember being super worried about it. I also remember people telling me it was no big deal, that he would get there, but until he did I couldn't stop myself from worrying. Of course with Seth being my second I'm way more laid back in that area, but even with Emmett I'm loosening up. Emmett has always been behind his peers on most things developmentally. He's proven that it's not a matter of intelligence (this kid has all of his books memorized and practically operates the computer better than me), but a matter of only working on things that are important to Emmett. Singing and reading and computer games are important to Emmett. Taking his own shoes off or using the potty...not so much. It can be frustrating at times, but I KNOW he's going to get there. I'm doing what I can to help him stretch out of his comfort zone and try new things, and I'm not sweating the rest. I can't tell you how much I wish I could go back about 2 years in time and tell myself to chill out. ;)