Isaac's First Day of School

Isaac started pre-school today! I have been concerned that I wasn't engaging and challenging Isaac enough at home, so I was looking into some other activities for him. I have been a member of St. Matt's Episcopal Church since I moved to Austin 11 years ago. There is a day school associated with the church and I've heard great things about it for years. Click here if you would like to know more about the school. (Mom, you should be able to see the hyperlink if you want to visit the school's web site). His teacher is Mrs. Pape, but she doesn't  have a bio up on the page.

I took Isaac in on Tuesday to check it out. We arrived while his class was out on the playground. We were shown the classroom and then went out to join the rest of his class. Isaac got to play with some big new dump trucks and front-end loaders; filling them with lots of gravel. The kids then held onto rings attached to a rope to lead them back into the classroom. Isaac sat with the other children to have a snack before we had to leave. Isaac actually cried when I took him out to the car because there were so many new toys he hadn't had a chance to use. I stopped by the office and picked up the paperwork to fill out.

Isaac will be at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. It sounds like most of the day is spent playing with the gazillion toys in the classroom. There are lots of new trucks for him to play with! There are outfits for dress-up, which a couple of the girls were using this morning. There is a little house he hid in on Tuesday. They also play outside for at least 30 minutes every day, unless it is raining. They will go to the library for story time each week and they have music time, as well. They have a class curriculum on seasons, so they also do a little "work" each day, but that only seems to be for about 30 minutes, which is GOOD.

This morning, he was excited to wear his new backpack because we'd been watching Dora the Explorer and she has one, as well. He recognized the school when we arrived and tried to drag me straight to his classroom so he could play. We checked in through the office and then Isaac finally got to go play. He was so engrossed in playing with the trucks with the other boys that I didn't even get to say goodbye to him!

Showing off his new backpack:

About to leave for school! He was having fun with Laine's sunglasses...

When I picked him up, Mrs. Pape said that he'd had a really good day. Apparently at some point he went to the door. She thought he said, "Ready to go, Mom." I suspect what he actually said was "Laine-Bug, Mom." He probably thought we were in the hallway. :-) She said he didn't cry, but he was looking for me. She warned that the second day is often worse. I will let you know whether that happens.


After school! Let's go, Mom!!!