I started writing down my life goals and it turned out to be a list of places where I want to nap, but haven’t yet
— Andrew Knott (@aknott21) February 12, 2018
According to UNICEF, at least 40 million preschool children worldwide have missed out on early education because of COVID-19. This is a staggering statistic, but while I was searching for information on how missing preschool could affect a child’s development, I could not find any data on how many would-be preschoolers have started naming letters of the alphabet “Jeff.”
Read MoreI’ve been having a weird year so far. There has been plenty of upheaval with the passing of my father at the very end of last year. In addition, not on the same level but still very disorienting, our youngest child is reaching the age where we have to prepare for preschool later this calendar year.
Read MoreMy 3-year-old, Bennett, started school Monday. It came suddenly. I returned from my trip to New Orleans and the next day we were walking him into school with his Paw Patrol backpack resting on his little shoulders. It was the same building where we dropped Jacob off for the first time two whole years ago. When we left Jacob the first day, he was fine until the moment of separation and then there were heavy tears. The teacher held him so we could get out of the building. With Bennett, it was more subdued.
Read More[In a preschool parking lot at 8:32 a.m. on a Friday. It is an unseasonably warm morning in February.]
Dad #1: Hey.
Dad #2: Hey, how's it going?
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Photo Credit: Sebastian Pichler (www.unsplash.com)
Bubble Day
Us: One small bottle of bubbles
Good Parents: 10 bubble wands and an oversized jug of bubble liquid refill
Movie Snack Day
Us: Ziploc sandwich bag containing goldfish crackers
Good Parents: Individual snack packs for the whole class and/or two boxes of donuts
Valentine’s Day
Us: Box of cards (with stickers included!) purchased at 10:30 p.m. the night before at Wal-Mart
Good Parents: Home-made, personalized heart-shaped cards that say “O-Fish-Ally Yours” with individual packs of goldfish crackers attached
Puppet Day
Us: Finger puppets borrowed from a friend the day before
Good Parents: Full-scale replica of the Sound of Music goatherd puppet stage complete with the full cast of marionettes
*I may have exaggerated a little on one of these (only one), because our kid got sick and had to miss one of the days, but I'm pretty sure that's how it would've gone. The overall point stands: we seem to be doing this wrong.
Don’t forget! My book, Fatherhood: Dispatches From the Early Years, is now available for immediate purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and pretty much all of your favorite online book retailers. Paperback and ebook versions are both available. Don’t wait…everyone is doing it! (And by everyone I mean more than zero people.)
Our four-year-old is about two weeks into his preschool experience. Somewhat surprisingly, so far, so good. Maybe he’s not so much like me after all. Yay, him!
Perhaps the best part of preschool from the parent side is trying to piece together what exactly goes on from the time we drop him off until the time we pick him up. Attempting to account for that three hour window is definitely still a work in progress. Here are a few things we know and don’t know.
Read MoreA terrible thing happened last week. We took our four-year-old to visit a preschool.
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