A Georgia Girl in Germany

My baby’s growing up! Benjamin started Pre-K today.

I had thought about enrolling him in a German preschool last year, but -- while I think it would have been a good experience for him -- I think it would have been too much for him to learn German while also learning how to speak English correctly via speech therapy. But since he’ll be in Kindergarten next year, I figure it’s important for him to be familiar with the school routine if nothing else. He’s already drawing adorable stick people and recognizing many letters and numbers, so I'm sure everything will start to click for him soon, and he'll be well on his way to reading up a storm!

I originally had a short-sleeve shirt picked out for him to wear, but he insisted on wearing a long-sleeve shirt. His reason? He didn’t want his teacher to see his orange fish tattoo on his arm and make him wash it off. I don’t think she would have done that, but since wearing a long-sleeve shirt made him feel more comfortable about his first day of school, I wasn’t going to argue with him.

He didn’t want me to take his photo, either before we left, or once we were in his classroom… hence the sour looks on his face. Fortunately, he already knows one other child in his class -- Gabriel. The two of them are in speech class together two days a week, and are now in Pre-K together on the other three days. Gabriel arrived shortly after Benjamin, came up to him, gave him a hug and introduced him as “my friend Benjamin” to one of their teachers.

Benjamin was reserved while I was still there, quietly taking in his surroundings and seeing what the different centers have to offer. When we came home this evening, I asked him what he did in school, and he simply replied, “Everything.” Too cute! After playing what seemed like a game of Twenty Questions, he revealed that he played with blocks, worked on puzzles, played with “kitchen stuff,” played with a doll, read books and went outside for recess. Sounds like a typical day in Pre-K to me.

Since I’m on the Benjamin theme, I figured I’d share some of his recent Benjamin-isms:

He likes riding the “alligator” to travel from one floor of a building to another, and reminds me of such as he points to the “elevator.”

When making “toss-berry” (strawberry) milk for him, he’ll ask me to make a “potato” (tornado) in the glass when stirring the mix.

I recently explained to him that when the flags on post are all the way up, it means that it’s time for people to be at work. A few days later, the flags were at half-staff following Ohio Representative Paul Gillmor's death. When Benjamin noticed the difference, he told me, “The flags are almost down, so people are almost done at work.”

When he doesn’t want to pause/stop a movie yet, he’ll call out “It’s the seam!” which means to wait until the end of the “scene” before doing so.

He used to say he missed me when I was at work, now it’s, “I miss you when you are with yourself.”

When he tries to put his jacket on by himself, he’ll often get one arm in the sleeve, then spin in circles while trying to get his second arm in. I chuckle every time he does so, because he reminds me of a dog getting dizzy while chasing its tail.

But, my favorite request of his usually comes when he wants to watch a movie, sometimes it’s a “scary” one (“Monster House” is a favorite of late), other times his request comes when we watch 10-15 minutes of a movie before bedtime. Often he’ll simply tell me, "Mommy, I want to cuddle with you." Tonight he came right out and told me he wanted to watch a scary movie so we can cuddle, and pulled out "Monster House." Of course, it’s hard to turn down such a sweet request, so I don’t mind taking a few minutes to sit on the couch and cuddle with my Benjamin.

Labels: Benjamin