Our first born is getting ready to go to the "big boy school where you ride the school bus". We currently have two, possibly three schools in mind. One is a public school and the other two are private schools. We like all the schools for different reasons and know that Dylan would love and do great in any of them. Unfortunately, the decision primarily lies on schedule conflicts.
In any case, the last few weeks consisted of registering and screening for kindergarten. Today, Dylan went for his first Kindergarten screening. We mainly prepped him by telling him all the great things about the schools and how nice and friendly all the teachers are. For those that don't know Dylan, he is very reserved and shy around people he doesn't really know. He needs to feel comfortable with you before he would carry on a conversation. So one of our fears was that he wouldn't even go in the classroom with the teacher doing the screening. Parents aren't allowed to join them and the thought of that was not pleasant for any of us. For days, we talked about all the great things about the school, all different kinds of toys and games they have and the prize he would get from the treasure box. Fortunately, it worked because Dylan held onto the teacher's hand and willingly walked into the classroom by himself... although he did turn around a couple of times to look at Mommy who gave him a nod and whispered "it's ok".
About half an hour later, he came out of the room with smiles and a stamp he picked out from treasure box. It took a lot to get him to talk about the screening and didn't really give much detail, but apparently the following were covered in that short period of time:
- shapes
- letters
- numbers
- map/story telling
- coloring
- drawing
- coins/money
In a month or so, we'll know the results. But no matter what the results are, we are so proud of how much Dylan is slowly coming out of his shell. The fact that he didn't have a meltdown today was a huge accomplishment. Just one of the many signs that he himself is getting ready for the next step.
