Joy School

This is my fourth year participating in a preschool co-op. Meaning once every 5 weeks (depending on how many children participating) I teach preschool at my house, and during the rest of the weeks I drop my child off at the lucky mother/teacher’s house for 2 ½ hours. It’s been four years and I confidently consider myself a pro. I’ve got so many tricks up my sleeve of songs and games to last a lifetime of preschool... not to mention crafts! This year a group of us decided to try out Joy School. I have been in awe of this curriculum and am thrilled to have found a group of Moms who feel as I do and are interested in trying it out with me. I love that Mr.T gets to go to preschool without actually going to preschool. I love the home preschool option and could stand on my soapbox all day discussing the benefits. Like I said, I’m a pro and so I boldly offered to be the first to host Joy School.

Tuesday went wonderfully and of course didn’t merit a post at all. Today. Well. With 6 boys (including my Little E) and only one little girl... let’s just say it was a little rowdy. Some were a little sad and are still getting used to being at preschool and so we had to take turns sitting on the teacher’s lap – much to Little E’s dismay. All in all it was a pretty typical preschool day until I had to deal with a potty accident. It was in the bathroom and not that big a deal. I told the child to stay still, while I got the other six involved in snack time at the table. Snack’s safe, right? What could go wrong during snack time? Up to my arms in clorox and quickly cleaning and changing one preschooler, I can hear the sounds of utter chaos coming from my dining room. When I came out I discovered that snack really isn’t the safest option for 6 rambunctious joy schoolers. Crackers and cheese dipped in water make for lovely plaster on the walls, floor and tables. Curtains hung by very cheap rods make for fabulous swings, and more than 3 boys together can cause a huge wrestling match and pile-up. There were many tears, screaming to deafen my ears, boogers running, curtain rod broken and mess mess mess. I faced the children and escorted them into the front room (the tidy room) for stories. “The Little Gingerbread Man” has never made me want to cry before, but I held back the tears and read. Chaos was still ensuing and we still had 45 minutes left. It was one of those moments where I felt like crawling back into bed, and left with that thought I decided I should probably call for back-up before I either took that option or exploded. I told myself I was not a failure, swallowed my pride and called one of the other mothers, who was marvelously understanding and came over immediately. Of course by then things had calmed down drastically and we went outside to all get a breath of fresh air.

I know it’s the first week of Joy School. I appreciate that the children are still getting used to this new part of their lives. I am sure there won’t be a potty accident every time and I recognize that they are young and I need to adjust to that age level (after teaching 4 and 5 year olds last year). But it was still hard to feel that complete sense of out-of-control-ness. I’m over it now. My house is back to some semblance of normalcy and I have 5 weeks before I teach again! But mostly I’m sharing this because I wanted all of you who comment that I’m a supermom to know that indeed I am not. I’m just a Mom like all of you and I had a nice taste of humble pie today. I’m still excited about Joy School and I sincerely love each one of those little preschoolers.

***I just returned from helping somebody who called needing immediate help. I felt like I was returning a favour. I much prefer to be on the giving end of service, and I felt validated being able to help. However, I’m glad that in the middle of Joy School I was the one who learned a much needed lesson: it’s okay to ask for help. Thanks for listening.