Two weeks down.

This week at Big School:

Josh drew a self-portrait while observing himself in the mirror. I think (of course) that his was one of the best in his class! His teachers put copies up on the wall outside the classroom. I will try and take a picture tomorrow so you can see that I am not completely biased about that. 

EDIT: Here is his finished portrait

And these are some of the others:

They made a class graph of everyone's names organized by the number of letters in each.

They read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It was one of Josh's very first favorites (thanks, Grandma Katie). Then they experimented with colors and patterns by making caterpillar pictures.

They learned about the number zero.

One definition of zero

Is the mathematical value

Between positive and negative values

They Might Be Giants taught me that.

They made an Age Collage. Josh chose three popsicle sticks and three blue feathers. Blue is his favorite color, by the way. And this was also picture day! Can't wait to see how they turn out.

In his Mandarin class they learned some new songs and I was really amazed to hear him randomly sing them to himself throughout the week! I convinced him to let me take a short video. I will try to link it. http://youtu.be/EWAJe_yPe5o

The newsletter this week said that the results of the previous years Mandarin comprehension exams showed that all 20 of the pre-k students not only passed - a passing grade is 120, they all scored above 166 and two students even achieved perfect scores! My suspicion is they were already Mandarin speakers though, but I am planning to ask. 

Josh also got to meet the Librarian and was excited to point her out to me the next day when we saw her in the hall. I don't know her name though, because he called her "the library guy," but she remembered his name, which I found impressive.

Friday was the first home football game of the year, so all the students and teachers wore their school tee shirts. I really wanted to take him to the football game, but kickoff was at 7, and we have been trying to stick to the schedule as much as possible.

Here are a few shots of his classmates, he is in the background of each of these:

Violet (she has a twin brother in the other class and on older brother in kindergarten this year).

Lucas

Tessa and Violet. Josh is in the time-out chair. When I asked him why he said that he was playing too rough, I am so not surprised.

Tessa again, she has the first class birthday and turns 4 this week! Josh's will be the next birthday we celebrate in the classroom.

Another photo of Laney.

Josh and Lucas on the slide.

He loves his big school! At dinner, we have a family tradition that we each get to say what our favorite part of the day was. Tonight Josh said his favorite part of today was big school... It's Sunday. I am so glad he is thinking happy thoughts about his days at school. On Friday, I said that I was going to meet him for lunch and bring him home to take his nap. He immediately protested and said that he wanted to stay at big school the whole day!  

I guess all that time worrying that he wouldn't handle a full time program was not necessary. That is a wonderful thing!

Bonus: 

For those of you who made it through that entire post, this is a clip of Josh singing his favorite new song... http://youtu.be/T0KqBpGeJzA

Big School!

Since making the decision in February to send Josh to preschool this year, I have had extremely mixed feelings. I am so happy to admit that after his first full week, I could not be more certain that we have made a fantastic choice for him. Josh is naturally outgoing and quite extroverted (gets that from his father, for sure)! He has needed more daily interaction than I have been able to offer - all my character voices sound basically the same, and I am not nearly imaginative enough. He made fast friends on the first day, and he is noticeably thriving in his new surroundings!

Here are some photos that his teachers uploaded to the class website today:

This is Kipton - Josh's number one new buddy. Josh loved making this cloud painting and told me all about dipping the sponge into the paint before pressing it to the paper!

A sandbox inside the classroom - how cool is that!?

That is Miss Jodi, one of his teachers. I love how approachable and confident she is. I am amazed at her multitasking skills, and look forward to getting to know her better as the year goes on.

This is Laney (short for Delaney) and she is one of Josh's friends that he met over the summer. She is observing Big Red, the class Beta fish - Josh is building a shelter in the background.

And by the way - how have I never heard of a Promethean board before?? That's one on the back wall.

The best part of this whole week has been the conversations Josh and I have in the car on the drive to and from school. It's about a 23 min drive and I park so that I can walk him in/meet him at his classroom. Eventually I will let him hop in and out at the curb (maybe), but for now I really enjoy getting those extra moments with him.

On the drive the first day our conversation went sort of like this:

Josh: Tell me a story about Grandpa when he was a baby.

Me: One time Grandpa played a trick on his sister and told her that a ghost named George lived in their closet.

Josh: But that was when Grandpa was a baby in your tummy?

Me: Grandpa wasn't a baby in my tummy, I was Grandpa's baby. You were the baby in my tummy.

Josh: So you were a baby in Grandpa's tummy??

Me: No, babies are only in tummies of mommies - I was a baby in Marmee's tummy.

Josh: Oh. Well how do babies get out of the mommy's tummy?

Me: Well, when babies are born they come out of the mommy's tummy.

Josh: I know that already, but HOW do they come out?

Me: (nervously) Um... Well, there is this place called the birth canal... And when babies are born they go through it. (I know... What a terrible answer, but this was the last conversation I expected to have on the morning of the first day of Pre-preschool...)

Josh: But where is it?

Me: Um... It's inside of mommies... 

I can't remember how I managed to change the subject, but somehow I was able to distract him from this line of questioning. Needless to say, I was ill prepared for that discussion. Going forward, I have to prepare discussion topics in advance!

Here is a snapshot of his sweet little face that I hurriedly took the morning of his first full day of Pre-preschool. I love that he was holding on tight to his beloved Mellobear. He gets to nap with Mellobear everyday.

Oh, and he really loved that spikey hair! He pointed it out to every person we encountered as we walked to class.

And a couple more for good measure: