Matthew: The Preschooler

Matthew started preschool on Tuesday. He has been SO excited to start school. I, on the other hand have not been as excited, but I know he is ready to go so I am happy for him.

I picked this preschool out a couple of months ago and I took Matthew with me to tour the place. I told him we were going to be meeting the director of the preschool. So when we walked in Matthew walked right up to the first woman he saw, stuck his hand out and said "Hello director, my name is Matthew." Thankfully it was indeed the director and from there I barely got a word in because those 2 were deep in conversation. During the tour, the director would show him different rooms and Matthew would always say something like "This room is awesome (or amazing), director". In the drama room, there was a stage and a piano. Matthew offered to play his "Red Eye of Danger" song, the director said that would be wonderful and it was indeed a great number that I had never heard before.

Matthew definitely likes to be prepared. That is why his lunch bag was packed 2 weeks prior to his first day. What does a boy need in his lunch bag for a first day of preschool, you ask? According to Matthew, it is important to pack fruit snacks, hand sanitizer, and an electric pencil sharpener. That is what he had packed. Finally, Tuesday morning I was able to talk him into packing more food items, reassuring him that his school would indeed have hand sanitizer (or water and soap) and a pencil sharpener.

Once we got to school he tried to get rid of me in the parking lot. He felt like he could take it from there, but since I had a few questions for his teacher he allowed me to accompany him inside. Once inside, a staff person walked by and said hello, the boy says "Hello, I am a newcomer". So she kindly showed him to his room. He was in his room having fun before I could even get a goodbye hug! (Don't worry I didn't cry or anything, aren't I such a big girl??)

Later that afternoon I went to pick him up. There is a line of kids waiting to be picked up all holding books. As I am looking down the line searching for my little man I see kids holding books like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and The Berenstains Bears Go To School. Then I spot my boy.....carrying this.....

Yep, he picked the 15 pound dictionary. The director is laughing and says "Um, we got to chose books from the library today and Matthew chose the dictionary". He says "Mama, I got this dictionary because I love information". He really does. He was upset when I told him we would have to take it back to school next week to trade it in for another one because he said it was the only information book they had. Hopefully, next week they will have another information book that is a bit lighter (and a few less words would be ok too).

So he really enjoyed school. He couldn't remember a single classmate's name, but he could remember what everyone ate for lunch. He made a picture and told me it was "a dangerous shark attack with a snake and a worm with super powers". He learned a hello song that they sing when they first get there. I asked to hear it on the way home but he informed me that song can only be sung in the morning and "we were losing daylight", so I was unable to hear it (there are obviously alot of preschool rules I am not aware of).