Going to School

As I explained in yesterday's post, A started going to a little preschool in September. He started out going two mornings a week. He seemed to like it, but would always cry a lot when he got dropped off. SleepyPapa works near the school, so he's been on drop-off duty, and this crying business was very tough on him. The teachers said A was doing well, only cried for a minute after SleepyPapa left, and seemed happy. When I asked A at night what had been nice during the day, he would often say "school", but still, the tears kept coming in the morning. Things got a little better at one point, but shortly after, A got sick, skipped school a few days and it was back to square one.

We needed to switch him to four mornings a week for the Spring because my mom went back home and I will be teaching Monday through Thursday, but even though it's more school, it seems to make things a bit easier... A went four mornings in a row last week and day 4 of this week will be tomorrow. He still whines once or twice while getting ready in the morning, but happily jumps in SleepyPapa's truck, walks to his room without protest, and only once his dad says he needs to leave, tries to pretend he's crying.  In the afternoon, he tells me school was fun, but adds here and there that the teacher is "not nice", for good measure. (I think he knows he has to say something negative to support his whining). And... even though she's "not nice", he can't wait to show her his new shirts in the morning!

A concentrating at school

The bottom line is that four days a week seems to work better because it's more of routine, and there's no guessing whether it's a school day or not.

I think school is somewhat improving his social skills, he seems to get along fine with his classmates, and has even found a good friend. We have parent-teacher conference next week, so I'll find out more about his in-class behavior. What I really enjoy is that everyday we get a "toddlergram" which tells us how the day went, how the child behaved, how much he ate, and what his favorite activity was. A's favorite is usually "cars" or "outside". His behavior is often "happy, cooperative, chatty".

Overall I am really happy with our decision to send him to this little school, and I look forward to several more years there.

How old was your child when you first sent him/her to preschool? Did they cry? When did they stop crying?

The Lunchbox Dilemna (I need Help!!!)

After a long break, I am going to try my hand at this again. The break was due to a crazy semester, during which I taught three 4-credit sections of French 201 at Syracuse University. I absolutely loved it, but it pretty much took up all of my time, and whatever was leftover was devoted to A... so the blog suffered.
A lot has happened since August.
- My mom came and spent the semester with us (because of the crazy workload). She really helped us out and it was great to have her with us.
- A started "school". In the fall he went two mornings a week, and my mom took care of him the rest of the time. This semester, my mom is gone, so he's going four mornings a week. More on this on a later post.
- A is potty-trained! (since October)
- we went to Orlando for a week (with no potty accidents) !

Anyway, to start things off again, I need all the help I can get. We obviously went from two lunchboxes to pack a week, to four, and A is a picky eater. So I am looking for suggestions.
Here are the parameters:
A does not like sandwiches or pizza
Meat is not allowed in the lunchboxes (not that he would eat it anyway)
They do re-heat stuff in the microwave for them

What I have been doing:
I have been alternating pasta that they re-heat, and a hard boiled egg and some bread. I also pack some baby carrots, a drinkable yogurt, some fruit and a fruitable juice box. He usually eats those fairly well.

I tried to change things a bit and packed some hummus and crackers yesterday. When I picked him up, he told me: "I ate all the crackers, but the hummus wasn't good, I like the hummus at home".
The other day, I packed some green beans (that he inhaled at home earlier in the week) and he told me :"I eat green beans at home, OK Maman?"
I am torn between continuing to try new things and just giving up and sticking to what works most days.

So, does anyone have any other suggestions? Should I just stick to what I have been doing?