Progress!!!

Whoo Hoo!!!

Two days in a row of NO TEARS at the door!!! AND.... Carson did NOT get a nasty-gram yesterday!!! WHOOP!!! They said he did SO much better!

Mommy took a totally different approach to the drop-off and it clearly paid off!!! Previously, I had been trying to let him walk in on his own, which they generally encourage but was a huge FAIL for us or pretty much just handing him over and leaving. That's what we did at his old school and he was fine. This time though, I held him at the door and we watched and talked about all the kids having fun and playing. When he acted interested, I went in with him for a few minutes and we talked, played, and shared toys with the other kids. After he felt comfortable, I stepped out. I guess he may just need a little hand-holding for a while. Today, they were all playing with little farm animals (score!), so it was really easy to get Carson interested. All the kids were bringing him their animals and sharing. We found a cow (score!) which he loved. All the kids were huddled around us and he seemed to enjoy being the {positive} center of attention. He ran to show his teacher his cow, turned to me and said "bye", and then just kept on playing!

Prayers that today is another good day...

I e-mailed the director about what was going on and I think she totally hit the nail on the head. Here's a little excerpt from our conversation...

"I am so sorry that this has been a stressful transition. I do know that the number of children in the class with Carson is very different from his prior school experience. This is a larger group than he is used to, but I believe that the most significant change that you mentioned is the "age" of the class. I think that Carson has come from a 12-18 month old classroom and into an 18 month-2 year old classroom. The children in this classroom have grown together from the beginning of the school year until now. Many of them not talking at the beginning of their experience; and now majority of the children are very verbal, communicating with each other in complete sentences. The communication between children is probably very new to Carson. In a 12-18 month old classroom, I can imagine that Carson is more used to teacher/child interaction and parallel play with the children around him. In our 18 month - 2 year classroom, the teachers are interactive with the children, but the children are also very interactive with each other. The class has developed from parallel play to very interactive play.

Both factors may contribute to his slight "insecurity" with his new class... In general, the children in the class are very playful with each other and very caring toward each other. I feel that Carson will continue to observe these larger, more "mature" group behaviors and learn to feel more comfortable with the children [by more mature, I simply mean more experienced in this environment and a little older. I am not referring to intellectual maturity, more emotional maturity]...."

I did watch me a little Supernanny during breakfast this morning though just in case... :-)