Back to School

After a two-week Christmas break, Samuel and Cameron returned back to school today.  As parents, we tell ourselves that we will not allow any bad habits to be picked-up while the boys are out of school.  Well, that is easier said than done.  We have always put our boys to bed pretty early (around 8:00 pm) largely because April and myself are early sleepers ourselves.  Of course putting them to bed early usually means that they wake-up at the crack of dawn, which has its advantageous and disadvantageous.  A big advantage is that usually we have no problem with them rising on school mornings.  However, after two weeks of letting them stay up past their bedtimes, it was a little difficult getting back in their routines last night.  Cameron did fine, but Samuel was not ready for bed.  We have noticed that if Samuel gets the least bit of a nap during the day, he simply does not want to go to sleep at night.  Late Sunday afternoon I noticed him nodding off.  I quickly put a stop to any extensive nap, but nonetheless that two-minute rest could have been two hours.  He got out of bed shortly after we laid them down.  To get him to sleep, we kept the TV off and wrapped him on the couch.  Eventually he snoozed off and I carried him to bed.  This morning about 4:15 he hopped into our bed (a near nightly occurrence) and slept like a baby until shortly before I left for work.  When I woke him up, I told him it was a school day.  I was expecting a loud scream, but he actually seemed okay.  We had been telling him for a few days that school would be starting back soon.  The reception had not always been taken very well, but apparently it worked.  As I left the house, Samuel seemed ready to go back to school.

Samuel started attending Pre-K in late October 2015.  He goes all day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's.  April takes him to school and picks him up in the afternoon.  There is a routine where April stands outside the courtyard and waits for the teacher to come by to pick him up.  If the least little thing goes differently, Samuel has a fit.  Luckily this morning everything went "normal" and April said he did fine as she dropped him off.  He has two wonderful teachers, who seem to genuinely care about him.  However, he is in a main stream classroom with 16 other students.  They simply cannot cater to his all his wants.  This frustrates Samuel, but I think it is good for him to see how the other kids function in a classroom setting.  It is also good for him to know that the world does not cater to his every desire.  The other children are extremely kind to him, but Samuel is not able to say much to them.  When he gets overly excited he has a tendency of knocking things down on purpose.  This has to be frustrating to the other kids, but I think they have been very understanding.  April and I have discussed what we can do to keep him from knocking things over.  Of course we do the usual verbal scolding and emphasize to him that this is wrong, but it doesn't seem to stop the next time he gets overly excited.  I'm curious if other parents out there have suggestions about how to stop these episodes?  When April picked him up this afternoon the teacher said he did okay today, especially considering it was all the kids first day back.  I consider that a success and hopefully he can get back on his normal routine again.