First Day of (pre) School

As the end of the summer approached, we knew it was getting to be time to send Eitan to some kind of school situation for the year ahead.

We partied hard last year, but between  Eitan getting older and his needs changing and the new baby's imminent arrival,  the reality was that my life as a day time full time mom and night time professional (wow that sounds bad) wasn't going to work for the time ahead.

That being said, we took the lazy route to finding a daycare, telling friends we were looking for something and waiting to hear back from them. He's going only three mornings a week (the other two weekday mornings we have "programmed") so while of course I wanted something with lovely staff and safe, I wasn't so picky about curriculum (for a 2 year old!) and other details that might be more important if he were to be there all day, every day.

So a couple weeks ago a friend let me know that there WAS in fact a couple spots open in her son's school and that they were looking for kids closer to age 2 then 1 to balance out the overall ages. The school is great for us. It's about 10-15 kids (depending on the day, it seems part time is very common here) from 6 months to a little older then Eitan (so he'll learn to play nicely with babies? Maybe?). The teachers are really lovely, some speak English, some don't, and about half of them have American parents. They feed the kiddos breakfast and lunch, sing songs, have a lovely garden play space and do all kind of projects. The best part is, it's about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. Okay, so the care Eitan gets is really the best part, but you know, convenience helps.

We went to visit one day last week and it seemed great, and Eitan started this week. He was really excited about it, we psyched him up all weekend for him to go to school and play with all the toys and children (he was particularly excited by the Cozy Coupe car that he remembered from our visit). We were warned that the first few days/weeks might be hard, because he's never been in a day care setting (he's always just had nannies/babysitters) and have watched a lot of our friends go through the beginning of school year trauma.

So day 1 was for two hours, the first of which the teachers reported he spent crying (poor guy!) but yesterday, day 2, they said he cried for a couple minutes when I left, but had a great time after that, playing with the other kids, eating the food they made him (unlike day 1, and you know it's bad if Eitan's turning down food!), and generally having a ball. Even though they said day 2 should be 3 hours,when I called to check in they said he was doing so well I should just stay home and get him at normal pick up at 1pm. YESSSS! Happy boy, happy mommy! He's home together today and tomorrow, and my hope is that Thursday picks up where we left off instead of a whole new transition. We'll see.

One funny anecdote is that the teacher said that Eitan has already claimed the cozy coupe as his own. Even when he's not in it, he doesn't let the other kids go in it. What chutzpa! He's so funny. And I told them to make sure everyone gets their turn in it.

Next up in school adventures: Parent's night and Eitan's school birthday (they celebrate Hebrew birthdays here, so it's next Sunday).