Preschool & Potty Training

I started researching preschools for Brennan in January. The MOMs Club of Sterling hosted a preschool open house that jump kicked the process for me. After meeting representatives from a bunch of different schools at the open house, I toured three that I liked the best. We decided on the Kids Under Construction Preschool, attached to the Methodist Church in Sterling. The program director seemed very involved and energetic and I liked the "curriculum." I say that loosely, because much of it is play based, but they do work on letters, numbers, days, months, etc. They also do some Bible teaching, memory verses and kids worship with the pastor once a month. They have specials like cooking once a month and they do a Spanish lesson once a week as well. Once a year, they put on an art show, displaying all of the children's art work. Registration was on Monday, the 14th, and I arrived two hours early, in case there was a line. I was the first to arrive though, so I sat in the car and read my Kindle. I wanted to sign Brennan up for the three day a week class (meets on MWF), but that class was already full from church members and returning families, who had priority registration. So, instead, Brennan is registered for the Tuesday/Thursday class and we are on the waitlist for MWF. Either way, I am sure he will be fine. School meets from 9-12 and there is a lunch bunch option once a week where you pack a lunch and the kids can stay until 1 PM.

I am excited for Brennan, but starting preschool in September means that he has to be potty trained by then. I've been feeling concerned about that and haven't been completely sure if he was ready. Last Thursday, I decided to start working on it with him. He has been fairly resistant to sitting on the potty, so I thought we'd just start with naked time. I figured I'd just let him have accidents in the hopes that it would motivate him to want to sit on the potty. I did a little accident proofing on the couch and rearranged the kitchen to accommodate the mat, which makes the floor warm and comfortable. I brought up some of his favorite toys from the playroom as well. My plan was to keep him in the kitchen and TV room for naked time. When he woke up on Thursday and came downstairs, he saw the changes in the kitchen and was very excited.

Brennan usually loves running around naked, but wanted no part of it on Thursday, so I just took that diaper off and eventually got him to agree to take his pants off. We started our day with craft time and worked on making Valentine's Day cards for his grandparents. We also spent a bunch of time "cutting" his fruits and veggies (a favorite pass time) and working on the Melissa & Doug See and Spell puzzles.

We continued having diaper free time throughout the weekend. I noticed Brennan normally waited for us to leave the room before having an accident. While he didn't like wetting himself, he resisted the idea of sitting on the potty, so I didn't push it. Day over day, it was just accident central over here. However, on Monday, I noticed he hadn't had an accident for 3 hours. I started to think he was holding it to avoid peeing on himself. But, still I couldn't get him on the potty. Eventually, I put him in a diaper so we could head to the playground (it was 65 degrees on Monday!) Yesterday, we had the same experience, but as we approached 3 hours, I could see he was uncomfortable. He was kind of doing a potty dance. I decided to push the issue of sitting on the potty, which is contrary to the advice in the books, but I felt like he just needed a little push. Well, it seemed to work. He went pee pee in the froggy potty and went two other times yesterday! It was great! I was so proud of him and you could tell he was proud too! I haven't got a photo of him on the potty yet as I don't want to do anything that may turn him off. He seemed to like his privacy while doing his business and I had to leave the bathroom and shut the door to get him to pee. I will keep you posted on how it is going.