1st Day of Preschool - Challenger

Sofia started preschool at Challenger on Tuesday. She will be going Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoon from 1:00 to 3:30 to keep her skills sharp. After much deliberation between Challenger and Learning Dynamics which are both close by, we picked Challenger on a trial basis. I think I like their teaching program better and I was kind of turned off by Learning Dynamics trying to push their "not required but everyone else will have them" alphabet flashcards for $25.00 and beginning reading books for $50.00. However, it's a good thing I got the new mom mobile because I may not have been allowed to enter the parking lot at Challenger with my 2000 Isuzu Rodeo seeing as how when I went to drop Sofia off, there was a parade of identical cream colored Escalades and silver Lexus-es. That's the part that turns me off of Challenger a wee bit. But we'll see.


Sofia picked out her shirt for her first day of school and I convinced her to wear these easy to take off pants and brown school shoes. We talked about the fact that she could not have any accidents and that she needed to go to the bathroom by herself. Going to the bathroom is still not one of Sofia's strong points and being that she was suffering from some constipation from eating too much cheese on vacation, I was a little worried she might get kicked out of school on her first day for incontinence. She tried to go to the bathroom about twenty times before we left for school to no avail. She was also concerned about wearing the brown shoes which I at some point told her were not outside playing shoes. She worried that she would not get to play in the playground. We discussed how this playground has a padded floor and not wood chips and that she would be OK to play with these shoes and that settled her concerns.


With her Challenger bag in hand we headed off. I explained that a teacher would come to get her from the car and she seemed more than thoroughly prepared. I was very proud of her. We were the first ones there and had to wait a few minutes for someone to show up. When the person did show up, she whisked Sofia away without even stopping to let her say goodbye. One point against Challenger. I felt a bit strange leaving her there and taking off despite having left her at daycare every day all day from the time she was 2 1/2 months old. I think it bothered me not being able to see her comportment once she was inside. There was no way to know how she was reacting to this new experience; no windows, no cameras.

When I picked her up, she was waiting outside with a few other girls. She spotted my car and jumped up in the air exclaiming "there's my mommy!". She was very happy. I asked her to tell me about her day in class but she just sat there and said nothing. I was even more annoyed that there's no cameras in the classroom like what I've been used to for the past three years at The Children's Academy. Later, she volunteered that she liked most of it but not some parts of it. She liked one song but not another song and she refused to participate during that song. She did go to the bathroom (#1) by herself and explained that the teachers are not allowed to go in with you. She said she liked the part about the animals and that they got to go outside to the playground. She came home with a tiny piece of paper in her bag where she had traced over her name.