Preschool Problems

Even though I majored in education, I never thought that I would homeschool my kids. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with homeschooling, I just never thought it would be something that I would want to do. I wanted to go the more traditional route of "home preschooling" until they were old enough to go to Kindergarten, and then I would go back to teaching. I didn't think that I would enroll Jackson in preschool unless I really needed to go back to work.

But then he turned 2, and he still wasn't talking. (Still isn't actually. Not one word.)

So our speech therapist suggested that we send him to preschool.  She said that he needed to be in a situation that did not involve me. Sure, we go on playdates ALL the time, but I'm always there and I always know what he needs. She suggested that if he were in a classroom then he would have to learn to communicate in order to get what he wants. Sounds logical.

I found a great little morning school run by a local church (a church that I have started attending since then and LOVE) and when we went to visit it, Jackson immediately took to his teacher.  This amazed me, because it is not often that he just automatically goes to another adult, it usually takes him quite a while to get used to new people. I took this as a sign that this was where he was meant to be (after I looked at the lesson plans and found out for sure that this was a preschool type place, not a daycare type place).

 So I enrolled him for twice a week, 3 hours a day. I thought it was perfect.(Did I mention that I would be getting almost 6 whole hours a week to MYSELF? I could not have been more happy)

Jackson, however, does NOT think it's perfect. He does NOT want to go ANYWHERE without his mom (or dad).  He doesn't seem to remember his teacher or care that she is so sweet and does plenty to try to make him happy, he just cries his eyes out the whole time he is there.

He has only been twice, so I am hoping things will get better. Starting tomorrow, I am going to take him in for only an hour at a time. We are hoping he will get more used to the idea of being away from me if I come back quicker and then we will expand to an hour and a half and then two hours, etc.  I'm really hoping this works.  The director told me that this idea worked with a few kids that had the same problem last year.  After a few weeks though, if it doesn't get better, I will pull him out.  I want to give this thing a try, but I'm not willing to have my child get so stressed out about it.

Have you dealt with this sort of thing before? How did you get your child ready for preschool?