First week at preschool

Augie finished his first week at preschool/daycare (it's called preschool, but it's a bit more like daycare since he's so young and there's no formal teaching or anything). He went Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from about 9:30 - 12:30. Our intention is to have him there from about 9am - 2 or 3pm. I accompanied him Monday and Tuesday, and James went with him on Wednesday.

When we arrive in the morning, the kids play outside in an enclosed playground. (We had four days of sunshine this week, and Augie played outside in all of them!) On Tuesday we went for a little field trip, a walk to a 4-H farm about 1km away. After a while outside the kids go inside and play for a bit before lunch is served. Augie sits a table with the younger kids (he's the youngest there by about 5 months). On Tuesday he had two servings of fish (cooked in an egg sauce)! Of the other children at this table, one is a Japanese boy, one a Chinese girl, one an American boy, and Augie. It's quite an international group, which we appreciate. After lunch the kids wash their hands and get ready for naptime. That is, all the kids except Augie.

Augie much prefers to keep playing with toys. For reasons I don't understand, they do naptime in the main playroom, which is a recipe for failure with Augie. The first two days I tried to nurse him to sleep, and then tried to put him in the stroller to lull him to sleep, but neither worked. On Wednesday one of the workers, Yuko, put Augie in a stroller and tried to rock him to sleep but he cried for 30 minutes, until James brought him home to me. He fell asleep on the bus ride home, then slept for 2.5 hours in bed. Obviously, we have some work to do to get him away from nursing to sleep for naps.

Next week James will take Augie in the morning and drop him off; it'll be his first time without one of us with him! Oh, I hope he's okay. And I hope he can learn to sleep.