Meet the Teacher: Pre-K Style

Well it is so hard to believe my lil guy is officially going to pre-K this year! It seems like just yesterday he was this precious lil guyWhere has the time gone?!? The sad thing, I'm already thinking "Wow, this time next year he'll be starting Kindergarten and we'll be going to the same school!!" CrAzY!!!

This past Friday night was Brayden's first "Meet the Teacher". Luckily he was able to go to his "school" for about a month from mid April to mid May to help him get adjusted. I was hoping it would help get him excited for August but NO not with this stubborn lil guy. Let me just start off by telling you how much he was DREADING going to meet his new teacher and his first day of school for that matter. Over the last couple of weeks I had been trying to "prepare" him since summer was coming to a quick closure. Each time he ADAMANTLY demanded that he would NOT be going to school. I tried to get him excited by telling him that he was giong to "learn" so many new things. Well, that didn't go over so well. That lil stinker is such a fast thinker without hesitation he suggested that I could just have a teacher come to our house so he could learn all day while mommy was at school. So I am thinking, a Pre-K private teacher?!? Then I had to break the news to him, that mommy doesn't quite have the money for that one! So I tried turning it back to all of the positive things his school has to offer but of course he was able to turn my positives into a ton of excuses. He came up with a few good ones: "They make me take naps and I DON'T like naps!" (valid excuse-I'm not a fan of him taking them either because he wont go to bed before 12 or 1am if he does.) "I have to wake up too early and I like sleeping in." (VERY valid-neither of us are morning people) "I don't like the food, so my tummy gets hungry" (Valid for him, but unfortunately he's gotta learn to get over this one. There is more to eat in the world than grilled cheese, popcorn shrimp, rice, muffins and oatmeal-his ONLY foods of choice this summer). I gave up trying to convince him how exciting his school will be, I thought he's just going to have to wait and experience it himself...that is if I can just get him there. =)
Luckily both of my parents were in town and my dad planned on taking him back to their house to spend the night, so I was able to use that as good bribe. "If you want to go with papa you have to first go meet your new teacher." After several minutes of convincing he realized he didn't have a choice in this one. So off we were. Once we got there, and checked in a strange "shyness" overcame him...all of his teachers that were so excited to see him and that he loved before, for some reason he could barely give them a hello. In fact, he stuck to my mom like a magnet, he would not let go of her hand! As we checked in, we were excited to hear the music teacher, Mr. Austin is also going to be his classroom's late afternoon/evening teacher. Brayden loves him and he tries to mimic everything Mr. Austin does with his own guitar. Plus I think it will be great for Brayden to be around a "male figure" on a daily basis. We also learned they have a few new fun features that they didn't have before. He will get to participate in a lil Gymnastics class every Tuesday and Thursday through Sept is splash park day.It was also so exciting for me to see all the lil things he will be learning: they will have calendar helpers, checking the weather, show and tell, cooking projects, list goes on and on. I actually found it a lil touching because I could relate to the things his teacher was mentioning they would be learning...I could see it truly is the basis of kindergarten. Next on our tour was meeting the gymnastics instructors. Unfortunately, his strange "shyness" was still in place so he wouldn't show off any of his own fancy tumbling moves. They were super nice and tried pulling out all the tricks, but Brayden had his mind set up that he wasn't going to do it. I'm sure by next week, he'll want to be the first one in line to participate. One of the best things of the evening, he met a new, sweet lil friend that will be in his class. Guess what his name is!!...Brayden. Believe it or not, it is even spelled the exact same way. How strange is that?!? As soon as we got in the car, the first thing I said was "Well so much for the uniquness on naming him Brayden." My mom laughed, she said that is the EXACT same thing the other Brayden's dad said. What are the odds?!? Brayden did get to play with the "other" Brayden on the playground for a lil bit. He was finally able to break away from my mom for a few minutes. Then of course we couldn't leave before we made a stop in the cafeteria to have some juice and cookies. Thankfully, by the end of our hour and half visit, he decided school wasn't so bad and he might go back on the 24th. =) They have a "social" this Friday, not quite sure what all that entails but hopefully we'll be able to make it. I also have my Meet the Teacher on Friday night so it will be a busy evening.

Here he is grasping on to my mom's hand, a lil hesitant to go inside.


He would never take an eye off one of us even as he played outside. I guess he thought or was afraid we might leave him there. =)

In the cafeteria eating a cookie (no smile of course, cause he's not happy to be there.) If you look closely in the back lefthand corner you can see my dad getting his 2nds or maybe even thirds? =)
Of course, next week I'll let you know how his first day/week goes. With his school, they offer a great program where my family can watch him on the internet all day long to really see how he is doing. We can even review it in the evening to see what happened earlier in the day. It's great because he won't be able to put anything past me. =)