First day of preschool

My baby boy.

Starting preschool.

About a year ago, we thought it’d be great to send Jude to 3 year old preschool.  Then when it came down to realizing what it would mean for our monthly budget, we thought… nah, too much for Jude just to have fun.  We didn’t think he needed it.  And we never considered it again.

Then two weeks ago, my lovely in-laws offered to pay for preschool as a gift if we wanted to send him.  So we thought about it for a day and said SURE!  After all, it’s only 2 days a week at a church down the hill from us, and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll pull him out and wait a year.

It took us a few days to get used to the idea – we weren’t mentally prepared but the more we thought about it, the more excited we became.

We told Jude that after we went on a trip to the Black Hills (which we did last weekend – more on that later) it would be time for preschool.

Because we knew we’d be traveling home from South Dakota all day Monday, Josh decided to take another day off from work Tuesday.  We thought it would work out perfectly for him to be home so that we could both walk Jude to preschool for the first time.

Yesterday morning, we all set out as a family and headed to preschool.  I had my camera in tow.  Jett, not wanting to be left out, was wearing a backpack as well. 

Hmmm… we arrived to an empty parking lot.

We walked in anyway.  No kids.  The church secretary told us that 3 year old preschool didn’t start until Thursday.  What?!  How did I miss that?

It wasn’t a total bust, though.  Since we’d missed the open house last week while we were in the Black Hills, Jude didn’t get to put his school supplies in his cubby, so we did that.  We also had a chance to visit with his preschool teacher and a helper while they were making preparations. 

And then we all came home.  Sort of a let down.  Jude didn’t seem too bothered by it, we told him that preschool would be even better Thursday because his new friends would be there.  He was ok with that.

I’ll have to get another first day of preschool picture later this week when it actually does happen.

What sort of impression does that make on a preschool teacher, you know, when the parent gets the first day of school wrong?  They were really nice about it and said it happened with a number of parents last year.  All the same, she was probably thinking they’ll need a back-up plan for when it’s Jude’s turn to bring treats! :)