Preschool and Gymboree

For my own memory, a quick update on the boys' "school" lately!

Joshua has been going to Gymboree since he was about one year old. He enjoys it, but not as much as Jacob did. It is so funny to see how differently the two boys approach the class and handle themselves. Jacob always wanted to do exactly what the teacher told him to do, and was quiet and interested in following other kids. Joshua usually has two little boys following him around, and usually does whatever he wants, usually involving as much running as possible.

Last week and today, Joshua has surprised me and has listened really well to the teacher and actually participated in the planned activity the entire time. He is doing a great job of understanding when I'm telling him that he can do something "next," as in, after the teacher shows them what is in her bag. He has started answering questions the teacher asks (what is this a picture of? what color? etc.). I am very proud of his progress, and glad I didn't push him to do things before he was ready. Now, he really enjoys the actual activity part of the class, and then really loves his own creative part of running around and finding whatever he wants to do for the day. Lately, he has been loving jumping off into the blue foam pad over and over again, hiding, and really following the theme and pretending. Today's theme was ducks, and the teacher has all of her friends to come up to the front mat. Joshua said, "duck friends," reminding her he was a duck today. When she asked if everyone was ready to go under the parachute, he said, "ducks go." He has been really great at pretend play recently.

Jacob has been doing wonderfully in preschool lately. After some difficulties with the teacher throughout the first half of the year, we are finally coming close to seeing eye-to-eye and his days are now full of smiles instead of fear of the teacher. It's been a battle of a year, and I have had to keep a close eye on him and ask specific questions about the teachers after we had a situation-gone-bad at the beginning of the year which required the teacher to apologize to Jacob. His sensitive side has required a long time to recover and regain some trust in the teacher. But, this week I have had my regular Jacob back who talks a lot about school and is full of smiles when he climbs in the car after class. He has always excelled academically, and that is still the case. We are working with him at home filling in the last few gaps he needs to count all the way to 100 on his own. He has been on a big coloring kick recently, and this has been the first time he has sat down on his own and colored for a really long time, filling in two or three sheets at a time. We are so proud of him, and so excited for him to move on to kindergarten next year.