First Day of School

Today is the first day of school in the State of Florida. And, in a sense, it is the first day of school for Alex. Today he starts the state’s official Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, or VPK program. It is a program run through mostly private day care centers, wherein the state provides cirriculum for, and pays tuition for, any 4 year old to attend a half-day pre-school in order to get the kiddos a little more used to the idea of school and get them ready for kindergarten.

In practical terms, this doesn’t change Alex’s day much at all — he will be in the same class room as he has been in all summer, with the same teacher that started three weeks ago. It’s called the “wrap around” room because these are all the kids who already attended the day care center full time, and so are likely to be dropped off earlier and stay later. The official VPK curriculum is run from 9 to noon. After the state curriculum for the day, they have lunch, have a nap, and then do other activities — play outside, art, reading, indoor play, even additional academic work. He may even have homework (he did last year in the three year old room!). The biggest change for Alex is that he must be at school before 9, and realistically by 8:30 if I want to avoid the hordes of stay at home parents dropping their kids off for VPK (for most of the kids, this is their first time in any sort of school setting and away from a parent during the day, and so the parents and kids alike have a rough go of it). Last year was the first year of VPK at this facility, and the VPK drop off made drop off for day care clients just miserable between 8:50 and 9:15 or so. The reality is I should be getting to work earlier in any event, so the earlier drop off will do us both some good.

Still, it is his first day of state-run school, so I wanted to commemorate the occasion. For the past week we have been talking up the “First day of VPK.” It was the last thing I said to him as I tucked him into bed last night. We talked about it over breakfast, how we had to get going and get to VPK on time. We dropped Nate off first so that I could give him my 100% attention at drop off as he entered VPK world.
I brought the camera, and took a picture of him in front of the VPK sign-in and in front of his classroom, with the “Welcome VPK” sign.

Then, we went to walk into the classroom. Alex tried to go to the classroom next door, which is also being used for VPK (the non-wrap around kids). I explained that he was still in Ms. Latoya’s class, but that it was now VPK too.

And he freaked out. He started crying that he wanted to go to VPK and he didn’t want to be in this class anymore. He wailed as I left in a way he hasn’t done in over a year. I went back to reassure him twice, but he wouldn’t calm down. I actually stopped by the director’s office and asked him to check in on Alex and help soothe him a little (which he kindly did, despite the onslaught of kids he was expecting in less than 15 minutes! Good thing Alex and Nate are two of Mr. Mike’s favorite kiddos). My poor baby. I think I unintentionally created the issue by making too much of the first day of school aspect of things. So much for nice memories of the first day of school!