My boys are moving out :(

Gradually, at least. Two days ago, Max started daycare. Yes, I'm still home. Yes, Max is not yet in school. However, over the next two months, there will be a lot of changes in Max's life (including introduction to daycare, introduction to school and having Leo crash his space when the two boys start sharing a room). We felt like spacing these events out as much as possible would probably help ease any trauma that the changes in Max's routine might cause.

The daycare is a facility that cares for JK-Grade 6 kids from 7:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon. While it is located in a school, it's not the school Max will be attending. The daycare and Max's future school, though, have an arrangement whereby kids are bussed to the daycare at the end of the school day ("day" should be in quotes, given that Max is done his "day" sometime around 11:00 in the morning).

The caregivers/educators (still not sure what exactly they're called) in the daycare center work with the kids using an emergent curriculum approach, so they encourage kids to learn through play, in particular using playthings that fit into what the kids are currently interested in (bugs and pirates are on the list at the moment). I'm not sure if Max cares too much about all that, but he does care that they have lots of Mega Blocks, a big play house and a bunch of books.

Max's daily schedule (for now) is: arrive at 9, play, eat lunch, have rest time, play outside (weather permitting), eat snack, play, get picked up at 4. Some days of the week are designated special days, such as Wednesday pizza lunch days, Thursday special event days and Friday water play days. For example, yesterday morning Max and the rest of the kids were visited by Dr. Kaboom the magician and his traveling petting zoo and pony rides. Eclectic.

I was a little surprised that the careducators pretty much said nothing about his day after day 1 - Max's previous caregiver and preschool teachers were always full of information about Max's day. However, it is a big bonus that Max is now old enough to remember a lot of what happened during the day so I can at least get some details. Even if they're filtered through the brain of a 3-year-old. Max apparently cried a bit for me in the afternoon of day 2, but still speaks highly of the place so we'll probably visit 3 times next week.

It's a little sad to be reminded at this point that the end of my stay-at-home adventure is not that far off. I'll try my best to get some quality time with both boys before they're squired away in care for the next year. It probably won't be that hard, given that the weather has been super awesome lately. Well, except on day 1 of daycare (see below).