Kirby's first day of preschool!

Last week Kirby started a local preschool. He had been talking about it for about two months. Before our trip we visited 3 local schools. Here they start at age 3 and continue on through Kindergarten, starting Elementary school at the First Grade. We wanted to start Kirby so that he could meet some children, learn the language and just have some time away from the house. We hoped to find one that would also allow Bennett to start early but we will have to wait till September or next February for him. After we picked the school we felt most comfortable with (there is a Hong Kong/American family that we are friends with who send their children there) we went to formally enroll him (meaning we paid the tuition). The first day back after the Chinese New Year holiday was last Monday. We got there sort of late with only enough time to figure out which class he would be in and let him have about 30 minutes to look around. The classes are much larger here, Kirby's has about 40-50 students with two teachers, but we figure he will be too shy to act out at first and by the time he warms up he will know the rules and be able to handle it--these teachers don't take no junk! Anyway, our plan is to send him MWF 8:30-11:30 but since the only option is to pay for full time tuition (5 days, all day) we have a lot of flexibility and can change the schedule when we need to.

He was able to go last Tuesday as his first full day. He was shy to leave Stan at first but went on into class. When Stan got there to pick him up, Kirby told him he cried a little and he didn't speak Chinese. We told him he didn't have to speak Chinese to his friends or teacher until he felt comfortable. Unfortunately his teacher doesn't speak any English but I know that Kirby will be too afraid to stray from what the rest of the class doing so it doesn't really matter that he doesn't understand the full instruction. Each day he has been waiting at the window to be picked up. I'm curious how long this will last before he is begging to stay longer. His teachers are really nice to us and so willing to work with him (and us) to improve our Chinese.

Kirby walking out of the door on his first day.

Bye Bye, Kurby! (Yelled out as most of what he says is and spelled in the way he says Kirby :)