Parent Participation Day

Erik's preschool is great because they encourage the parents in so many ways to meet each other, the teachers and get inside the classroom. There is also no pressure, you can attend somethings or not, but if you don't have time no big deal. Today was parent participation day where we got to meet and talk with his teachers and then play with our kids in the yard for an hour or so.

Events like this always present a challenge, and our school does offer babysitting for a fee. Recently though I joined a babysitting co-op and one of the moms in the co-op is in our preschool and has two kids as well. Her son is in a different room than Erik so we basically switched days. She watched Elliot today and on Wednesday I am watching her little girl. Makes life simple and Elliot got to have a nice little playdate this morning and I didn't have to worry about him hating the babysitting room since it is mostly for babies and not 2 and 3 year olds.

The conference was great, I liked the teacher's ideas. I even got to see which parents are in Erik's classroom and meet some new faces. There was good information, many people have two kids like me, most even have three believe it or not. One in our class had 5 children! Crazy to think of having that many kids.

So after our meetings with the teachers we got to go back to the classroom and play with our kids. I asked Mrs. W if she minded if I took pictures. She laughed that I even asked, so here is yet another opportunity for Erik's scrapbook for year 4.

As first Erik wasn't sure what to do with me. It is so rare that it is just me and him, no daddy, no Elliot and he can just do what he wants. So he showed me his picture book with the picture of him and me.

Then we were looking for something else to do when we headed out to the play yard for outside time. Erik was looking for a friend from Room 2 while we were out there, but unfortunately due to the parent meeting we weren't playing with Room 2 today. Quickly Erik rebounded and found things to do and showed me around.

His first stop was the boat and we pretended to go on a trip someplace and he even got to honk the horn.

 

 

Then he showed me how he knew all his numbers and counting to 10 in order by jumping from number to number.

The thing I was most curious about with Erik is how he was getting along with other kids. I just don't know what it is like for him and am worried about him starting kindergarten and his social skills. In my observations today he sees a kid who doing something fun and he joins is for a minute or two before finding something else he thinks is more fun. I think this is pretty age appropriate. I don't think he has a best friend in the class though and wonder how that works if I don't instigate playdates with his classmates.

These kids were playing Star Wars and coming up with an elaborate imaginative game with all the characters. I think Erik is way to young to learn about that stuff yet, but it did make me feel a tad guilty that he would be left out because he didn't understand the game. When the boys were telling him about the characters though, Erik's response was, "I don't know about that game, tell me about it." I was so very proud of him for using the proper words and actually being responsible about it instead of angry or shy. Mostly he just butted into what the kids were doing and tagged along, but it was cute to watch.

He also talked me into a game of hide and seek. We were hiding all over the play yard. At one point I hid behind the boat and it took him so long to find me I had to give up my hiding spot, boy was he mad.

We had to count to 20 today.

One of his many hiding places.

Telling me to turn around and count again because I didn't count long enough.

Looking for me while I hid behind the boat.

Still looking for me. 

I revealed myself and he said, "I was just about to look behind the boat."

I have never seen Erik do a somersault before and while another mom was talking to me, Erik did two of them! I pretended like I didn't see it and asked him to show me. I am impressed and this reinforces the fact that I should sign him up for gymnastics.

Sadly I did have some errands to run, including picking up Elliot, so I had to say my good-byes sooner than I would have liked and felt so guilty leaving before the other parents. Kids with siblings get it especially when I say, "I have to go pick up Elliot." We came back bearing stickers from Trader Joe's and all was well. Although I made the stupid mistake of giving Erik the stickers in class and not having enough for everyone. The kids didn't care because they were too busy saying hi to their parents, but Mrs. W was pretty annoyed at me. Duh, not sure what I was thinking there. Mommy guilt before common sense I guess.