Preschool Open House

Preschool Open House, Thursday August 30, 2007: There was an open house at Alex and Chloe’s preschool today. We went in at their regular time (12:30), and they got to see their classroom, meet their teachers, and meet their classmates. We went out yesterday and bought new clothes to have something special to wear on their first day “at school”. I was a bit worried that we’d have trouble getting through lunch in time to make it to school on time so I caught myself every two minutes saying to Alex “is there food in your mouth? Are you CHEWING it?” He can spend over an hour dawdling over a meal! As we were getting ready Chloe said “Mom, you’re ruining my life!”. Is she 3 going on 13 or what? I can’t even remember what I did to earn such an exclamation, but she’s been saying a lot of things like this lately whenever she doesn’t get her way. She often says everything from “it’s not fair!” to “I wish there were no parents and I would never have to put away my toys” or “when I have children I’ll make two dinners every night so they can eat what THEY want”, or my favorite “when I have children I’ll take them to Disney every day until we run out of money and then I’ll go ask my Dad”. I’m definitely cramping her style and we’ve had to have many talks about what is and is not a respectful way to talk to her parents. Anyway, with regard to this particular statement, I asked her “where did you hear someone say ‘you’re ruining my life’?” She said Aladdin says it to the genie in the movie. She just puts everything away in that brain of hers and tries it all out later. I hope I’m helping her understand what is appropriate to say and why, but in the mean time she’s coming up with some whoppers! On the way to school Alex said “Piglet likes to go to school, they have lots of toys there”. I guess I did job of explaining that school is a place that will be fun this year. When we got there, the twins remembered which door to go in (we’ve visited the school at least 3 times before) and we found their classroom. There are 12 kids in their class, 6 boys and 6 girls, but I only counted 9 kids at the Open House. Alex and Chloe didn’t interact much with the other kids, but did jump right in and start playing with all the toys. Chloe was trying to dress a baby doll and asked me for help and I suggested that she asked her teacher which she did. She’s generally not shy about wrangling adults into playing with her. I introduced the kids to the class pets, a hedgehog and a lizard. After a while in the classroom Alex said “Mom, when are you going to leave?” I explained that I was allowed to stay for the whole open house and Alex said “but I WANT you to GO!” He thought school was always without me and he doesn’t like things to change once he’s got them figured out. At least I probably won’t have to worry about separation anxiety! All told the kids did great and I think they are going to really enjoy school this year.