There's No Place Like Home

We had a few rough weeks when Rowan started preschool this fall. Going from in-home daycare — and in our home at that — to structured preschool was a big adjustment. But we've now reached a place where Rowan seems reasonably happy at school.

We still have our occasional hard days, though. This afternoon, for example, we had the following conversation while driving home.

Rowan: "Mama, I don’t very much like some things about my school."

Me: "Really? Like what?"

Rowan: "Like a lot of things."

Me: "But you have some good friends there, don’t you?"

Rowan: "Yeah, I like Rebecca and Matthew and Maverick."

Me: "So playing with them is fun, right?"

Rowan: "Yeah, but I still don’t like some things about school."

Me: "Hmmm."

Rowan: "Like...I wish they had just one basket of toys."

Me: "Really? Just one basket?"

Rowan: "Yeah, like one basket of toys that I could look in whenever I want."

Me: "OK…"

Rowan: "And I wish they had a couch instead of an ABC carpet. Or maybe two couches."

Me: "Oh."

Rowan: "And I sometimes wish they had a T.V. instead of play areas."

Me: "Rowan, are you describing our living room?"

Rowan: "Yep."

Naturally, I felt a little pang of guilt. After all, no place feels as comfortable as home.

But school has been good for Rowan in so many ways. He's made some new friends ("Wow, you're invited to a birthday party?"), learned more independence ("Wow, you can put on your own coat?") and adopted some good habits ("Wow, you sing all the way through the ABCs to ensure adequate hand-washing duration?!").

So I'm happy with our three-day-a-week separation. And really, five minutes before we had our conversation in the car, he was singing a pretty different tune:

"Mom, go sit over there for a minute. I'm not done playing."

Go figure.