preschool

we needed to find a preschool for september, when we would both be back at work. the public schools would overlook the waiting list because the kids were foster children but wouldn’t take 3 year olds that weren’t potty trained. our daughter had already begun potty training at her last foster home. she had a few accidents at our house but quickly got back on track with lots or praise from us. i read anything i can get my eyes on about raising kids… online, magazines, books, other parents, anything… so we first began giving candy as a prize for going potty but soon read that praising the child is better, and they’re not equating sweets with success. so she moved from diapers quickly, during the day. our son was a different animal, as we had heard that boys are! it took a long time for him to “get it.” one thing that helped both kids was the potty power dvd. it was recommended and the kids love it. now that they’ve outgrown it i’ve passed it along to a friend. so we had to stop looking for public pre-schools and look at private ones. luckily, we found a great school that would potty train our son when he was ready, and they had 2 openings for september. my partner took them to preschool the week before they started for a few hours each day, to get accustomed to the teachers, rules and surroundings. we thought it best to have them in separate, adjoining classrooms since our daughter seemed to help her brother a lot. we wanted him to gain his own sense of self and independence.
they both liked school very much. we usually took turns dropping them off at about 8:30 and picking them up around 5. it took our daughter a little while to get used to eating all her lunch and taking her naps (she thought she’d miss something). she also had a problem realizing that all the toys or snacks weren’t just for her. she would sweep everything up in her arms so no one else could have any. she would also eat food off the floor. all habits she overcame in time. our son had to go back to wearing pull ups. his potty training was improving but he wouldn’t tell anyone he had to go. sometimes he’d just go in his pants on the playground and continue playing, other times teachers would find him at the toilet with his pants down after he’d already gone in his pants. around that time I began trimming his hair too. he usually cried. we bought professional clippers but the vibration seemed to bother (or annoy) him. he’s much better now and loves the attention when anyone notices his new haircut! around this time they had their first field trip with school. we both took the day off to attend the trip to a local fire station. pictures we have are a bit strange. the kids look almost apprehensive. we don’t know what was going on in their minds but thought that maybe they thought it was another adoption picnic. they hated waiting in line to sit in the fire engine and our son had several time outs while we were there.
we found that we missed them during the day while we where at work and they were at preschool. we had a special photo book made of their birthday party that they took to school for sharing day. the teachers told us they loved showing the other kids. they had great teachers too, though our daughter’s teacher was in her first year and very lenient. she got firmer as time went on. our daughter will try to get away with as much as she can, so a firm example works best for her. she is a magnet to creative projects and tends to wear them well! so many times she had changed clothes at school because of water play, or she would be covered in paint or marker. our son’s teacher was a 12 year veteran. she was perfect for him. and he loved her. sadly she left mid-year. but he did find another favorite teacher, who was the co-teacher of his class. he’s always been great at circle time, he loves to listen to stories and participate. he’ll also play endlessly with trains or cars or plastic animals. learning to share them with schoolmates was his issue to overcome.
we were really pleased with our school choice. our relatives loved it too when they visited. and the kid’s social worker was very happy with their progress on her visits to school and discussions with their teachers.