Jadon’s “first day of preschool”

 

And when I picked him up…

SMILES!!  Beautiful, glorious smiles!  Hallelujah, Praise the Lord… it was a good day!

I wasn’t blogging back when things were really bad with Jadon.  He has come so far through counseling, prayers, and time.  His anger issues made anything Kiahna did yesterday look like nothing.  He has come so far!!

I put his “first day” in quotes, because in many ways it isn’t his first day.  It was his first day at this program.  He is going to another program two days a week, that already started, and I didn’t get any pictures of.   And he has been in a year and a half of preschool before this year.  Kindergarten will be next fall for Jadon.

Kiahna and Jadon are attending preschool at the same place.  Jadon’s class is held Tuesday and Thursday, and Kiahna’s Monday and Wednesday.  While Kiahna goes to her class on Monday and Wednesday, Jadon is going to the day care/preschool at the public school my other kids attend.

He thinks the program at the school (called latch-key) is so great!  He gets to go out and play on the playground and see his cousin who is in kindergarten!  He also gets to go to the lunch room and eat like the big kids and pack his lunch!  BIG STUFF!

YES!  The really exciting thing is that for me I now get to have 2 1/2 hours a week of scheduled time without kids!!  WHOO-HOO!!! 

I have decided to volunteer in the classroom where Lucas is, and my good friend Jeanne teaches, on Wednesdays.  So that really only leaves me Mondays for doing something on my own.  I really don’t want to go home and clean the house or spend that time at Walmart either!  What to do, what to do!?!

This schedule makes our mornings pretty busy.  It will be an adjustment and some learning to get out the door on time in the mornings.  Especially if I am going to do anything besides come back home after I drop them off!!

I have analyzed, re-analyzed, and given up on trying to figure out what to do to help Kiahna’s next day of preschool go better than her first day went.  One thing that the teacher told me was that Kiahna seemed to be angry.  I feel like that was part of it.  For some reason she was angry, or scared, and it came out this way.  Anymommy left me a comment on the post about her daughter (who was also adopted) reacting in much the way Kiahna did when she is scared or feeling out of control.  And how she uses “time-in’s” with her.  I have learned to do this with Kiahna too, but mostly because she refuses to stay in a time-out chair if I place her there by herself.

The truth of the matter is that Kiahna could be perfectly fine the next 4 times she goes to preschool, and then do this again all of the sudden one day.

I was actually quite shocked that she acted like this for them yesterday.  While she has done this before, I wasn’t even thinking that she would do this again.  She has seemed to mature so much this summer and she has been doing much better. 

When I went to get Jadon today, I was hoping I wasn’t going to be shocked again!  I expected him to do well.  And he did!

Thanks for all your nice comments, e-mails, and phone calls, and most of all the prayers.

“’Today was a difficult day.

Tomorrow will be better.’”

--Mr. Slinger in the book, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

…and it is.

Pam