School Years..But no Tears!

Jack started Pre-school and he could not be more excited! We have been talking about it for a while now, and got his new backpack (he is SUPER pumped about the baseball patch) a couple of weeks ago, which he has been playing with and filling up "practicing."

His special "First Day of School" Breakfast

(and yes, we did just get his hair cut a little more than a week ago - i seriously need to take a turtorial on a basic boys cut - he has SO MUCH HAIR!)

It is a September - June 2 day/week, 2.5 hour a day program run through the Chicago Park District and located just a few blocks from our home! Now, I can get started on my soap-box here, but Scott and I are both from the same school of thought that our children only have SO FEW YEARS to play, and we did NOT want him in a "test-in" PRESCHOOL with a strict curriculum, schedule, stresses, etc. The kid is only 3 years old! Chicago can get pretty crazy with their school options (some bad public with pricey and elite private...), but this program suits our family perfectly. It starts at 10:30 on T and R, which gives Emma time for a morning nap if she needs it (taking it about 3 days a week still), and during Jack's school-time, gives her great one-on-one time with our wonderful Katie. We did want Jack to begin the "routine" of going to "official school" (he has called his school "Katie School" so far), and obviously for socialization reasons. Okay, off my tirade now.... :-)

The obiligatory pictures - he was actually really good about it :-)

Emma was feeling a bit left out and wondered what was going on
She kept asking "Jacky? Jacky?"

Jack walked right in, introduced himself to the teacher (who he knew from another Park District program he had taken) and started playing! The day was a low-key "Introduction" day, but they do have a theme for every week and day. When we asked him how his first day was, he as said "Yeah, Some kids cried mom, But I was really brave and didn't even miss you!" I will always remember though, how I gave him a kiss, and he didn't even wipe it off (a rare occasion lately), and then asked for a big hug. He was super excited about learning the "crab-walk" and also that he gets to bring snack in for his class some days.

Overall, it went very well and we are super excited about this next adventure in Jack's life! I am a tad emotional about it all, and probably made too much of a fuss over him in the past few weeks leading up to the big day, but you only start "school" once and this is my precious

BABY BOY!

We are super proud of him, our brave little school boy!