2010.09.13-1stDayofPreS.02.jpgThe past month has been huge for Ian.  He not only became a big brother, but last week, he finally was able to do something he’s been wanting to do all year long.  Ian walked to his big boy school and spent the day there.  That’s right, Ian is now in preschool.

Last winter, Ian spent three days a week at a day care with a preschool curriculum, but he knew that wasn’t his big boy school.  Oh no, he wanted to go to the school that we pass all the time.  He knew that was the one where he’ll get to go once he was old enough and we waited for school to start all year long.

Not only is Ian going to preschool this year, but he’s going full days with half the day spent in Chinese preschool.  It’s actually called Chinese Immersion, but for half the day, Ian has an American preschool curriculum and the other half is spent learning Chinese.  It’s fantastic.  I totally want my son to be bilingual and I can only hope that he’ll be able to do it all the way through high school.  Currently, the Chinese Immersion program is only through grades 2 or 3, but that’s because it’s that new.  The second or third grade class was the first to be offered it and it’s been growing with them.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to grow.

It seems weird.  For some reason, I never thought I would be walking to school again, but I’m doing it six times a week now.  That’s not the only thing that’s weird either.  Maybe it’s because Ian’s school is more inner city than what I went to, but there’s only one bus for the entire school (this branch at least) and parents not only drop their kids off, but some of them actually wait in line to enter the school with them.  That’s another strange thing – the kids don’t immediately go into the building when they get to school.  Nope, they have to wait in a line, outside, until a teacher comes and lets them into the school.  I really don’t get that.  I mean, some of my fondest school memories were getting to school early so I could have breakfast with friends in the school cafeteria.  Granted, this was in high school, but even in the lower levels, I never had to wait outside to go in.  I’m sure I’ll find out what that’s all about once Ian goes to Kindergarten, but until then…

We’re now in our second week of school and Ian seems to be doing well.  He’s not too crazy with walking every morning and afternoon, but if I can do it for 11 years, he certainly can do it.