Preschool & Potty Training

We finally selected a preschool after so much deliberation! I’ve been to so many websites, visited the schools, talked with way too many people to remember…  There are so many great preschools out there. We almost went with Hillsborough which has a wonderful development program with specific curriculum in reading and math that sounded fantastic.  I talked to a few parents who sent their kids there, one who taught there in the past, and Angela who is teaching a smart little girl who came from there, plus who has friends teach there. GLOWING recommendations!  Then, we were not sure if we wanted so much academics, didn’t know about the uniforms they had to wear, and a few other things.  So I was looking into some other wonderful schools like Tiny Tots by our elementary school and Yorba Linda Methodist. Both schools had some glowing recommendations by parents as well.

We had toured Hillsborough in early March and when we thought we were not going to enroll Sam, I just forgot about all the rest for awhile.  The other schools didn’t enroll until August and after our disastrous potty training spree in March, I said, UGH! Who even knows if we will be going to preschool for Sam’s first year! It’s not really necessary.

Then, in early May I was starting to realize that most of the schools would be closing down for the summer so if I wanted to tour them – which we both did – we would have to do it now.  After a long talk about the different options, we decided to look again at Hillsborough, a local Montessori, and Fairmont – another private school in Anaheim Hills.   After receiving more glowing recommendations from Hillsborough, we were pretty much set.  I went and got another set of enrollment papers but at the same time I was calling the other two schools to arrange a tour.

After touring through Fairmont Anaheim Hills we were completely blown away.  It’s a huge campus from preschool to junior high with the high school campus in Anaheim.  This school was amazing.  The music room was beautiful with so many amazing instruments, the art and science room were glistening and looked like new.  The science room was occupied with all the students gathered around the teacher who was demonstrating refraction with a pencil in a glass of water (I was baffled, luckily our tour guide knew what they were doing – i just nodded my head).  Their computer room had about 30 new computers with flat screen monitors.  The library was large and their demonstration of their special reading program that tests children with a few quick questions after turning in their books to measure their comprehension was just impressive.

Yes, most of those things are not available to the preschoolers but the opportunities there are just amazing.  The preschool itself is ‘regular’ preschool for the P3 kids (the 3 year olds) while P4 starts in on a Kindergarten curriculum and Kindergarten is being taught on the 1st grade level.  In the Kindergarten class, the writing samples from the kids were beautiful printed pieces of art that just blew me away.

Now, the Director was biased on her school, of course.  But one of the things she said to us that we really liked was that while the Montessori way lets the children decide on what they like and prefer to work with, Fairmont wants the children to learn and be at least competent in everything.  They need to learn everything before they can make the choice on what they like or prefer to do.  I liked hearing that.

I also know that Sam loves to sit down and learn.  We have all these workbooks that she loves to sit down with us and do.  She is becoming an expert at tracing numbers and letters, navigating mazes, and learning to read already. I think she is ready for some challenges.

Who knows if we will continue through the school, I think we will take it year by year and see if she likes it.  That is the most important thing.  But we were so impressed and I am excited for her to start in September.  It’s only two days a week but she already can’t wait and I think she will have so much fun!

As for starting preschool, we had to get one thing out of the way… POTTY TRAINING!

Ugh! In March it was a disaster so I still was not looking forward to it.  For about a week, I was putting her in panties and either she would hold it the whole morning or she would say, “The peepee is running down my leg!”.  But last week, I was determined.  There were going to be NO MORE DIAPERS.  I told her that. Explained that all her diapers would be going to Griffin and we wouldn’t be using any more, except for her night time diapers. Which are a different brand and bag, and she knows the difference.

The next morning, we got the sticker chart set up, the potty seats in both bathrooms, and I had several changes of clothes downstairs.  We sat on the potty about 5 or 6 times and she played the Leapster. Honestly, I think she was (and still does) go to the potty and sit for almost a half an hour just so she can play that Leapster. We don’t let her play with it anywhere else!

After the 6th time, I was sitting at my computer (my Mom had thankfully taken Griffin for the day) and she was on the potty and I HEARD IT! She peed! I got so excited and was dancing and singing around and she just looked at me and cried.  I think it freaked her out. But she got over it and we got to do the special stickers, etc. etc.  I even gave her a jelly bean.  An hour later she said she had to go again, sat down and looked at me and told me to close the bathroom door.  I did and she peed again.

We’ve been at 100% for pee since Wednesday, people.  I guess telling her there were NO MORE diapers just clicked with her.  Before I was putting them on her for naptime but this time, nope.  Today she even peed on command in a public potty. I’m baffled, proud, and excited that it’s clicked!

Now, poop… that is a different story. Can I just say how much I HATE Miralax? Her whole bowel movements are just a complete and utter disaster.  On Thursday she had 11 poops in her pants and I was SO frustrated by the end of that day.  She doesn’t even WANT to poop in the potty, she is not fazed that there is poop mushing around in her pants. Ugh.

But tonight, we had a breakthrough.  She sat on the potty before bath for awhile. Then she said she was done. I told her she had not even gone pee yet, was she sure? So she sat back down and thirty seconds later she pooped! I think it was a surprise (thanks Miralax) but again… SHE DID IT!! And maybe she can learn from it and go again tomorrow. Maybe.

We are going to Toys R Us tomorrow and buying her a new bike/trike as a bribe.  She needs 6 more stars and I hope we are on the right track.

We also switched pediatricians (and he was awesome!) to talk about Sam’s tummy problems, potty training, and a few other things.  He was pretty cool. We will be going back to him. I’m happy that I finally made the switch.