As I may have mentioned, I struggled so much with school anxiety.
I do not make that known to Nikolas as I do not want to pass on my own worries/struggles. I do sit back and wait for him to voice his own concerns before I jump in to add my 2 cents.
We had the open house tonight. He kept saying how nervous he was. Would he be kicked off the bus? What if he got lost walking to his class? What if he went on the wrong bus? He has never been on a bus before. His preschool would normally have a field trip or two where he could have gotten that experience out of the way, but with covid, all field trips were canceled. So I knew getting some practice (with everything) is what he needed. He climbed up the big stairs, then ran down..He did not want much to do with it. I wanted him to sit down on the seat, but he just would not. Oh boy, I thought to myself..Is this how the open house will go?
We walked to his classroom. "Look! There's your teacher's name!! and your room number!" I exclaimed.
We walked in slowly, grabbed the welcome sheet and waited to talk to his teacher. He immediately hid behind me. This is something I did throughout so many of my early years. It was hard to watch as I haven't actually seen him do this before. EVER. He was taking everything in--There was just so much going on. Full families in the room. 21 other students (in and out of the room). He was simply overwhelmed with the noise and commotion.
After awhile in the room, he would not acknowledge two of his friends. He was just not himself. He was incredibly anxious. He looked on the verge of tears. "I'm scared" he kept saying. I had to keep reminding him how okay it was, that other people would be feeling the same thing too..It's new for everyone. etc. It just hurt me to see how he seemed to the ONLY kid stuggling..
All week he has been saying how mean his teacher will be, because he wasn't crazy about his prek teacher. "Every school year is the time to start fresh. You have a new teacher to get to know now. I've heard wonderful things about her!!" Do not let a negative experience affect anyone new you meet. Everyone has a clean slate. I really liked both of the teachers! I know he will be happy once he gets settled in!
We ended up walking out of the building when it felt like there wasn't much more to do..I insisted he try the bus one more time..I need to make sure that he will hop on in the morning. We've had so many POOR drop offs at Pre K, that I need to make sure he will feel confident with this. He went up fine, sat down, and I started talking more to the driver. It was fine, just like I thought it should be.
He hopped off and Dad went off the redo of the bus and said, "Let's go back into your class room and say hi to your teachers!" We let him lead the way to the room. (he knew where to go). Then Dad said, "Show me where your desk is!" He walked over fast! Then we both urged him to say hi to the para, he enthusiastically said HI!! She said Hi Nikolas!! Then he went to his teacher..same thing. He was more than willing to pose for pictures at the "booth". It was like night and day.
Because he was more calm, I wanted to initiate more practice. I showed him his bathroom pass, had him grab it, then stick it to the door as he went to the bathroom for the second time while we were there. Frequent bathroom trips are something I have to plan for when he gets nervous. He went in alone, did his thing and walked out. He grabbed his pass then put it back on his desk.
OK! He turned it all around..Thankfully! Time to reward him with a little visit to the playground on the way to our car.
He will be fine.