Welcome to the Threes

Today was the boys' first day in the three-year old classroom -- it was only an hour, and parents were allowed to come along. (Mattie asked me about 20 times if I was coming with him. I told him I was, but just for today -- on Friday it's "just kids.")

It was so cute.  This morning I offered James a red shirt or a blue shirt, and he said, "Mattie has an orange shirt?  I want an orange shirt like Mattie."  So that's why they both have orange!

And Mattie said to me, "If James needs me at preschool, I will go and stand by him."  (Which was especially adorable because James is not the least bit nervous about preschool, it's Mattie who wants some reassurance.)

The boys were both really good.  James went in first, and they had different colored bowls set up with different colored animals in them, and he immediately sorted them so that the animals matched their bowls.  Then he proceeded to put a  puzzle together.  :)  He was right at home!

Mattie found a car to play with, and then explored some other areas of the classroom, and then asked me to read him a book.  Then he did some drawing and stickers.

The teachers talked to both of them, and their teacher from last year even came in to say hi (although Mattie got very shy when she appeared).

Two of the little girls from last year's class were there today (they had half the class come at one time, and the other class at another time, so that there was room for all the parents -- one more little girl from last year will also be in their class).  They're both wonderful little girls, but they're also both the ones who (along with Mattie) had the hardest time with drop-offs last year!  So they both had some tears even this morning with their moms there -- we'll see how Friday goes.

The class ended with "circle time", which included a song with hand motions (which James, by the way, did just fine, even though it was a completely new song for him) and a story (which Matthew asked "why?" to a few times -- he doesn't have any trouble participating in class!).  Then we were waiting for a little girl who was in the bathroom before singing the goodbye song, and James volunteered that they should sing the ABCs, which we all did.  :)