Practice Preschool

Oliver's class is not really called "Practice Preschool", but that is what I like to call it. The class is actually called Just Us Friends. Just Us Friends is a class run by our city at the local recreation center that meets once/week for six weeks for an hour and a half. The class is designed to prepare 2-3 year olds for the transition to preschool. They sing, play games, play with toys, make an art project, read stories and even have a snack. Parents are welcome to come and go as they please. The first week I stayed in the class most of the time because I wanted to see how it was run and I didn't know how Oliver would do without me...or maybe rather, how or what I would do without him. As it turns out, Oliver loves it and is absolutely fine with me leaving. I haven't left the building, I just sit right outside his classroom and it sounds like he is having a great time. He kisses and hugs me goodbye and then is very excited to see me when the class is over. He even asks to go on other days of the week. And like most other kids, his response when I ask him what he did that day is "I don't know." :)

He is SOOOO ready for preschool. We've been talking about real preschool at the Spanish Schoolhouse that will start in August and I'm just hoping the excitement lasts. The major difference is the amount of time he'll spend at the Spanish Schoolhouse, five hours two times per week is a long amount of time. Not to mention that it will be spent only speaking Spanish. If you don't know Oliver very well, you should know that he is a talker. He and I spend our entire day discussing things and he isn't afraid to ask questions or talk to adults. I LOVE this about him! He is understandably a little apprehensive about the idea that they will only speak Spanish and has expressed his concern that he can't understand what they are saying. Even though we attended the Mommy & Me class together, which was also only Spanish, I could pick up on words and direct him as to what to do. What does he do when he is by himself??? The director of the Spanish Schoolhouse has assured me that most of the kids in his class will be in the same situation. They will spend the first couple of weeks speaking both English and Spanish and then make the switch to only Spanish. She said there is a lot of acting out when children don't understand. And she did assure me that if it is a discipline problem, the teachers will make sure that the children understand in English just what it is they are not supposed to be doing. I'm so hoping that he catches on quickly and that he has a good experience.

Anyway, back to Practice Preschool. Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Singing songs. The flash on my camera actually disturbed them, so this is the only picture I took during class.

Oliver with Ms. Linda after class

Some of the other children wanted to be in the picture too. To the left of Oliver is Sanjeeb and Dia is to the left of him.

After preschool we headed over to the mall to do what used to be one of Oliver's favorite things: ride the coin operated vehicles. I don't know if he loved it as much as he used to. There are multiple cars to choose from, but he chose to spend his five rides in the same two vehicles: two rides on the train, and three rides on the fork lift. He had fun and we shared a pretzel afterward. Yumm!