Silas goes to Kindergarten!

Today (April 7, 2010) was Silas's first day of German Kindergarten. Most kids in our town start when they turn 3 - Silas is starting a few weeks early so that he is adjusted by the time baby arrives. I figured that if we didn't send him until after the baby came that he would feel more "pushed out" of his place with mommy at home. This way he can adjust and it will already be part of his routine before the baby comes.

We've been gearing him up for this day for the past few weeks. We would keep asking him "are you going to go to Kindergarten with Shaylee?" And most often he would say "NO!" Then last week I bought him a pair of indoor shoes and he got all excited. He started wearing them whenever we were home and called them his "run" shoes because he thought he could run fast in them?!? The shoes I got him are camo and they match a hat of Shane's and so Silas also thought he needed to be wearing Shane's hat to "match" his shoes.

Silas showing off his new shoes and his hat to match!

I also took a picture of Shaylee and Silas together - since they will be going to Kindergarten together now. Shaylee is pretty excited to have her little brother coming with her now. She can't wait until he goes full days with her (right now for the first week or so Silas only goes for about 2 hours).

Here Silas is this morning right before we walked out the door. He was NOT excited about going at all anymore. I did manage a slight smile from him though.

Once at the Kindergarten it was ALL TEARS! He clung to me as I tried to get him to take his coat off and put on his indoor shoes. He was no longer excited about his new shoes. He just wanted to "go home" and asked "what me do here?" He was crying and then I lost it too. I couldn't help the tears. Inside I wanted to just take him back home...but I knew that once I left he'd be fine....but that didn't make it any easier. I decided to let him go into the classroom with just his socks on and he left his coat on too. I went in and talked to one of his teachers. She took him and he was still crying. We agreed I would come back in about 2 hours to get him and if he was hysterical or anything they would call me sooner. I told Shaylee to help him get adjusted and watch over him.

2 hours later.....the head gal of the Kindergarten met me at the door. She had a smile on her face and said that Silas was doing fine. He played well, ate his snack, and was adjusting nicely. I talked to her in her office for a little bit. It was time for the kids to play outside for awhile so they brought Silas down to the office to me. I peeked around the corner and he saw me, did sort of a double take, then ran to me, gave me a hug and showed me the drill he'd been playing with. He then went back with the teacher and headed outside to play with the other kids while I finished speaking with the head instructor. Outside he was playing with Shaylee and running around. He saw me, came and hugged me again - but then went off to play some more. When I told him we should get going...he really didn't want to leave...he was having too much fun playing outside. After about 10 more minutes he had to go pee, so I took him inside and then got him interested in going home. I arranged for my friend Sibylle to bring Shaylee home for me later at her regular time.

I tried to take a few pictures of Silas at his Kindergarten. He was sort of grumpy about going home - so no smile.

Here are two more pictures. I gave him a package of gummie bears - so he actually had a few smiles for me this time.

He will go back for a few hours tomorrow and on Friday. We will take it one day at a time - but I think he will continue to do fine even if the morning drop off doesn't go over without a few more tears :) It is really hard to believe he is off to Kindergarten. The head instructor (and me too of course) remember that he was only 3 months old when I dropped Shaylee and Sydney off here for the first time. Time sure flies by....what a BIG boy he has become!