Preschool is a challenge.
Acorn participates, but only with 1-on-1 attention from a teacher or an aid. When they switch people (like for a break) it's 20-30 minutes to get him back in the groove. There are typically 4-6 adults over the course of the day who are his shadow, and they're not the same people the 2 days he's there, because most of the aids are part time.
About once an hour, he looks up to make sure the nurse is still there, and starts crying. She tells him he's doing wonderfully, playing with his new friends or doing art or whatever. He continues crying for a few minutes, but keeps participating (though how much of that is because there's someone right there hands on is hard to say).
When we show up, he runs for the door. He's gotten better at home about getting his coat before he goes out, but if he could get out their door without a coat he would. He won't eat breakfast for them; lunch and naps have been spotty at best.
*sigh*
Suggestions so far have included to try switching days - one of the aids is there Tues and Weds and if he went those two days, she could be his main shadow person. Which is great, if it gets him more comfortable, but doesn't solve the issue of us having this problem all over again in a few months when we switch to full time.
They think he'd do better if he was there more often. I'm not so sure - we do lots of other things once a week, without it being a huge deal for him. He's always had a different schedule for different days of the week, with different nurses, therapists, doctors appointments, etc.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave him there if he's miserable, but I don't want to pull him out before giving him a chance to figure it out and work out how to navigate it, and I'm not sure 3 weeks is enough time to have figured it out.
I'm wondering if this is a transition he's just not ready for. Which is fine, but still leaves me figuring out what we do about child care when we lose our nursing. I really wish there was a simple answer.
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