Natural Transitions into the Classroom!

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Jennie has talked a lot about getting Cody ready to start preschool this Fall in her series “From Baby to Big Boy” and I’m hoping she’ll have some great pointers for me when I’m ready to enroll Luke in January!

I love how Jennie has talked about the gradual progression of getting Cody ready for preschool and how much leaving him at the gym child care has helped in this transition. We have been going to a nearby church that has a great children’s program. Getting Luke involved in a “kids church” has been something I’ve always wanted to do and we felt the time was right to give him the opportunity to “test run” going to a class by himself. We asked him first if he wanted to go and he said “yes” and seemed very excited. When we went I showed him where Daddy and Mommy would be sitting and then we did a tour of the kids classrooms and hung out while he played for a few minutes. We asked him if he wanted to stay and when he said yes, they offered us a pager – if he needed us they would page us during our church service.

What I LOVED about this pager was that it had different messages on the pager. They told us they would page us throughout the hour long service with reassuring “child is fine” and doing great messages which really helped us relax knowing that he was having fun and there were no problems. How many times have you wondered “I hope he/she is ok, wonder what they’re doing” and of course you really want to poke your head into the room and see them happily playing when you check on them! I really loved the peace of mind this message on the pager brought to us!

I didn’t expect to have any problems with Luke going into the classroom on his own and thankfully he didn’t even notice we were gone! He had so much fun, when we went to pick him up he didn’t want to leave which proves that he’s another step closer to being ready for the transition of going to preschool soon! My plan is to take him once a week to kids church and that will help expose him to more of a classroom setting with playtime/lesson time/snack time and a routine in general that will help prepare him for when he starts school.

There are so many great ways that you can gradually transition your kids and I love the support from this church who obviously knows the importance of supporting parents and children of all ages!

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