First Day of School

Dominic had his first day of Montessori school today, and it was a little rough.  First of all, he woke up at 5:45am! He has been waking up so early lately.  I know the sleep book ('Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child') would say he is sleeping poorly because he is not well-rested, and that his bed time should be moved earlier.  His bed time has creeped up in recent months, to almost 7:45pm some nights.  And though he is quiet when we leave the room, we can often see on the monitor that he takes almost 30 minutes to fall asleep.  Maybe he does need an earlier bed time?  I know I am getting way off topic, but if anyone has any advice please leave a comment.

We arrived at school about 8am.  We were led to Dominic's classroom and met one of his teachers, Miss Michelle.  She seemed really great, so that was a relief.  Dominic explored the classroom and interacted with the kids for a few minutes while Marcos and I chatted with the teacher.  I told her we wanted to do some short days the first week while he is getting used to school, and I wasn't sure if we should come get him before nap time or right after.  She suggested I call later in the morning to see how he was doing.  Then we said goodbye and Dominic started crying and tried to follow us out the door.  We took care of some business with the Director at the front desk and then I spied on Dominic through his classroom door; he was happily sitting on Miss Michelle's lap during circle time. 

I called the school for an update at about 10:30am and they said Dominic had been intermittently crying.  He did great when they went outside.  Since nap time is around 11:45, they suggested I call again in an hour to see if things were better.  At 11:30, things were about the same, so we decided the poor boy had enough for one day.  When we went to get him, he was at the front desk and one of the ladies was showing him the fish tank.  He looked pretty emotionally fragile.  Then he saw us and started crying and clinging to me.  He cheered up pretty quickly at least, and even said "bye" to the ladies at the front desk.

I think the rest of the week will be pretty hard. The Director told us it usually gets worse for a few days because the kids know what is going to happen and they aren't happy about it.  I'm glad Emmy is still here this week and we can do shorter days, but I'm not sure how much good it will do.  He may still be really unhappy next week.  I can handle some crying when we leave, but to hear that he cried off and on throughout the morning is just too sad.  Please say a prayer that Dominic will learn to like his new school!  This whole transition just makes me think (for the millionth time) that we have been so blessed to have Dominic's Aunt Emmy watch him for the past 16 months.  He loves her so much, I can barely stand to think she is leaving this weekend.  One hurdle at a time I guess. :(

Here are the few pictures I got, starting with before school:

 And entering school:

 Here is his report card for the day:

After we got home, he took a 2 hour nap and woke up in a great mood.  We all felt sorry for him, so he got to watch the end of Candleshoe (his favorite movie) and then Emmy took him to the playground.  I talked to him about going to school again tomorrow and he seemed ok with it.  We'll see!