Preschool-3 Gio

Well I have been bouncing back and forth whether Gio should go to pre-k 3 for a while now. I was very interested in a Mother's Day out program and had found several in close proximity to my moms house for convenience sake. Well I've been sitting on this since January due to financial constrains and also to spend some one on one with Gio before the baby came. Every time I tried to visit the schools something came up. So come June, Alexander is here my mom had taken care of both of them a handful of times and realized its not that easy. Especially Giovanni with his grandparents wants to be even more babied than before especially if Alexander is around. We had been going through a rough patch, but we went back to our old sleeping routine with him and that calmed some rough waves. We also have enforced timeout and consequences more than ever and calmed our own outbursts, talking one on one with him. Just a few minor tweaks and a major difference in attitude. Now do we have temper tantrums and fits here and there yes for god sakes he is three and those things rule for a bit, but better behaved and happy Gio who naps is on his way back. So with those issues going on mom stepped up and said find a school ASAP a summer program if available. Well guess what there are several but the summer and fall programs are all booked since February when registration starts, whoops!  After placing my name on several waiting lists, I felt bad for dragging my feet and worried that I wouldn't find a MDO program for Gio. Now people have been telling and asking when Gio was going to school for the last three years now. I personally have been fortunate to have my mom watch him and don't feel that he needed anything till now at three. He is able to communicate with us very well and can notify us of any issues. This is the perfect age. He is also getting very curious in regards to learning and I don't want to hinder that by keeping him home 24/7. He has a great passion for reading and puzzles now, he has memorized many of his books from story time with us and now "reads" to himself and recites passages in the car. It's amazing how much he knows and I hope he can keep that up for future learning. My only hesitation was that I was not going to put him in daycare and def not a 5 day a week program. He is three and as much as I want him to learn and engage with other kids, I still want him to enjoy being a kid. He is going to be in school permanently in two years so in the meantime lets just take it one step at a time. So I kept driving past a church in my neighborhood with a sign for MDO and told my mom about it, who was all for it. Have to run it by her bc she will be the one picking him up with Alexander from her house to my area of town. The program is at a Catholic Church, which is great, and only two days a week from 930-2pm. They are closed for the summer but were checking their messages, I probably left around five trying to get a spot for Gio. I finally got a hold of them and they had three openings in his age level and I stopped by to visit the classrooms and playground. It's a very small program, 14 kids in his class and two teachers. They answered all my questions and I felt confident that we had found a good place to lay roots for Gio's educational growth. As I walked thru the school, I imagined Gio going up and down the hallways, running through his classroom to explore and asking his teacher a million questions at once! It's going to be great, I hope she has a great attitude! And did I mention its affordable and in our budget bc some programs were close to 500+ for 2-3x a week. Yea no thanks, I want him to learn but not at a ridiculous expense this is prek3. They also have a tumbling program that is after hours that we will be signing him up for as well. I paid our registration fee and left content with our choice. I got in the car, called Luan and started crying my eyes out. As much as Gio tests us, he is and will always be my baby and he is growing up so fast. Last year at this time he was only talking a handful of words, he was walking and running around but his balance was still off....he had baby features and his hands were smaller. Now he is a rough and tumbling all over the place, reciting full books and singing in the car three and half year old with
barely any baby features left. He has stretched out so much and cuddle time is over unless he just woke up from his nap. I am trying to sneak in as much quality time with him as I can to strengthen his confidence and individuality. I am confident that he is will succeed and enjoy his new environment. I just hope I make it through the first week, lol :(