“I’m used to it,” is what Jack now says about school. He is happy to go, and says, “Staying home all day just playing with my toys might get too boring for me now.”
I am relieved.
Jack was quite hesitant about school for the first week or two. On the first day I lingered in the classroom with the other parents. Jack was understandably nervous for me to leave, but it was fairly smooth once he became involved in an activity. At pick-up Jack was laughing and talking to another student.
The next day’s drop off and pick-up where the same (nervous drop off and very happy kid at pick-up), but after school Jack said that sometimes he feels scared and wonders when I am going to pick him up. His eyes welled up with tears when he told me and I realized that he is at school for 3 1/2 hours each day which is just 30 minutes less than the amount of time he spent in school for the whole week last year. The days must seem long!
A few days later an annoyed sounding Jack said to his French teacher, “I don’t understand what you are saying!” I have to admit that I busted out laughing when I heard this – It is just like Jack to tell it like it is! But I did start to worry a little because the heart of Jack’s relationships with people is wrapped up the the playful language he uses. Since talking is so important to Jack, I worried that he would have a different (and not quite authentic) relationship with his teachers that would be vastly different from his relationships that he has at home and with his other teachers (from preschool and from Gymnastics)
During the second week of school, I had to leave while Jack cried and Yvan, the assistant teacher, held him from running out of the door. (As soon as I was in my car, I stated bawling myself - and scared the crap out of my mom when I called her – sorry Mom.)
At pick-up Yvan worriedly asked me if “Today is really Jack’s last day at school????” Jack looked up at me and smiled his guilty look. “I was just saying it could be my last day…” he trailed off. I explained to the teachers that Jack likes to talk to people and play with words - and sometimes make up stories. Yvan assured me that Jack was doing well, and had even adjusted much better than some of the other students in the class. That seemed to fit with Jack being so happy at the end of the school day. He did seem to be having fun.
After that day, drop-offs have been fine. Jack still likes me to walk in with him, but then he gives me a kiss and a hug and takes his little name card over to the chart that shows he is present.
This week his teacher, Caroline, told me what a great student that Jack is: being kind to the other kids, listening to the teachers, staying in his seat if he has work to finish, and being polite!
It is funny how a feeling or an event can feel so big and then just grow smaller over time. Then you just “get used to it” somehow. I don’t really get it, but I will take a happy Jack over a sad Jack any day.
