Dashiell and I have both made it through our first weeks at our new schools, and I think we’re both very happy with them so far. If you want to hear more about my week, you can check out the law school blog (update coming soon), so I’ll focus on Dashiell.
His new school is the Center for Early Education, a brand new program, to which three or four different “home schools” send their 4- to 5-year-olds for what we used to call preschool. It’s a bit farther away than his elementary school will be (only about a mile from the house), so we do have to drive each day, but so far that’s the only downside. On the first day, a 3-hour orientation that he and I both got to attend, Dash could hardly contain his excitement. Walking through the halls of his new “big boy school,” he just gazed around in wonder, with a huge grin on his face, occasionally squealing, “It’s my new school!”
Then we got to his new classroom. We hung up his fancy new backpack on a hook in the hallway and went inside. After locating his name tag on one of the tables (overcoming a moment of confusion when he first went for one reading “Daniel”), the first thing he noticed, of course, was the books. He quickly spotted all the titles he already knew, from home or his old school, and pointed them out to me. Then he and I did a little self-guided tour of the room, checking out the cool play kitchen (which he wouldn’t enter, since there were already kids playing in it), the dollhouse (which he loved), the bathrooms, the cool puppets, and, out the window, the best thing of all: the new playground. He could hardly wait to get to it, and said, “I bet we get to play on it today!” He was right. But first, he and a little girl named Lydia (who, when I addressed her, looked at me like I’d done some kind of incredible magic trick and shrieked, “How did you know my name!” Of course, she was wearing a name tag, too) played with the dollhouse, and a few minutes later, the parents were asked to proceed to the auditorium for their own orientation. Dashiell seemed a little tempted to get clingy, but I could almost see him calculating the weight of his anxiety versus the excitement of all the cool new toys. The toys won, and he let me go without a second thought.
When I returned, Dashiell told me all about the fantastic new playground, how he’d played on the slide, the swings, and the “big orange thing” -- a truly big and orange jungle-gym-like construction made entirely of concrete. Totally old school. He brought me a book I just had to read (twice, it turned out, as another kid showed up toward the end and had to hear the whole story), showed me the toys he’d played with, and told me he did not want to go home. I think the only thing that got him out of there without getting truly upset was the promise that he could come back the next day and spend the whole day there. Even so, he kept looking regretfully over his shoulder and repeating that he didn’t want to leave.
So long story short: he loves it, and all my worries about how much this was going to stress him out were completely groundless. Of course, it helps that one of his friends from Auraria is in the new school, too, though in a different class, and that he can think of it as “moving up” from the little kid school. But mostly, I think, it’s just that he’s an adaptable, easygoing kid. And maybe that’s just how kids are at that age. After all, no one else was having a breakdown or anything, either. Regardless, we’re happy that he’s happy, and that he’s settling right in. Now if he can just handle the new baby sister next month with equal aplomb, we’ll be all set.
Oh, and he of course had his 4th birthday a couple weeks ago as well. He got lots of great stuff from his wonderful family and friends, including the Super Why costume pictured above (the shirt’s just a pajama top), a Hungry Hungry Hippos game he’s been playing almost non-stop, an alligator puppet that now accompanies him almost everywhere, a big boy bike with training wheels, and many other excellent toys. Thank you to all of you for being so generous, and such an important part of Dashiell’s life. You’re truly the best.
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