Is preschool ready for Jelly Bean?!

I’ve been kicking my heals a bit when it comes to starting Jelly Bean at preschool. He’s still my baby, my last one at home and I’m keen to make the most of him. That said, these last couple of months have really shown his ‘terrible twos’ side and I started to see the bonus of sending him to preschool two mornings a week. By this age both Little Bean and Beanie Boy had already started at preschool but Jelly Bean still only seems like a toddler to me – though I know that will change very quickly over the coming months.

I fought with myself over the decision of which preschool to send Jelly Bean to. Do I follow my head and send him to the same preschool that Little Bean and Beanie Boy attended which is in the next village or do I follow my head and send him to the one that Beanie Boy goes to now which is attached to their Primary School? I feel like I want to give all of my Beans the same start in their school life and the Beans’ old preschool is such a lovely place, it feels like your dropping your babies off with a best friend who adores children, it has a real homely feel to it and they have known Jelly Bean since he was born. They have seen each of my Beans grow and they have been a big helping hand in nurturing them into the beautiful Beans they are today. All that said, they are a few miles away (not that it bothered me before) and I know that I will have to move Jelly Bean to the other preschool in September 2016 ready to make friends for starting Primary School in 2017 (NO WAY!!!!). My heart won!

For the last couple of weeks when taking the Beans to School/Pre-school Jelly Bean has been saying to me “I go school too, you pick me up later” so I know that he is ready for it. This morning he asked me again if he could go to school so I thought it would be a good opportunity to drop his registration forms off at his preschool and see how he reacted to it . . .

We walked through the door and said hello to two of the ladies and with that he was gone. He had taken himself through to the other room where all of the children were being ticked off the register and gave me a wave as if to say “goodbye”. The ladies and I laughed, this was almost identical to how things had gone with Little Bean when she started at preschool. Beanie Boy was the one who got upset but even then, only for 3 days and then he was fine.

Jelly Bean made himself quite at home at preschool, he jumped straight in with the train set and shouted “good morning everyone” as he marched through to the children sitting on the floor. One little girl dared to take a train which he had been playing with and then she felt his wrath as he shouted at her “my train, not snatching”. The ladies looked to me with a smile on their faces and said “he’s different to the others” and I reiterated i’m fully expectant to be told “Mrs Green, there was an incident today . . . ” each time I collect him from preschool but he will learn. Jelly Bean is the sweetest little boy with a very big heart, he can be very kind and tender one minute and then turn into the Hulk the next! But he is a very intelligent little boy and he picks things up very quickly so I’m sure once he settles into their routines and knows their boundaries they will tame my little lion.

At least, I hope they do.