A Little Eli Update!

At 2 years 10 months old tomorrow is Eli's first day of Pre-School and will be the first time I have every left him with people that are not family....It is a huge step but one we are ready for. He will be attending the village preschool where we will be moving to in a few weeks time, the preschool is attached to an excellent primary school and he will be going two mornings a week and then full time in January when he gets his free nursery places.

Eli is so ready for pre-school, he loves to learn and will greatly appreciate the social interaction with children his own age and the independence it will give him. We have packed his little rucksack ready for the morning of his first session where we will meet his key worker and settle him in.

Like every parent I am nervous and have my concerns, I don't doubt that he will run in happily without looking back he is quite confident and independent and I'm sure wont be worried about me leaving him.....I will probably worry more then him!! My concerns mainly revolve around his recent potty training as he is still a little shy over telling people when he needs to go to the toilet, Im sure there are bound to be accidents and he will soon learn and become more comfortable in vocalising his needs. My second concern is him following instructions, Eli can easily become attached to things god forbid if the nursery have any sort of toy train they will not be able to get him to put it down! There is always the obvious concerns about him being kind to the other children and making friends and although Eli can be a little over enthusiastic he is never intentionally nasty.

Although I try and teach Eli as much as possible from home I know he will learn so much more in the pre-school environment. I think he is on track with most of his 3 year old milestones and I am proud at how clever my little man is so I will speak a little about his development so far:

• He may be a little behind in his speech for his age he will voice what he wants and chatter away but doesn't always speak in sentences but he can string 3-4 words together, I think pre-school will hopefully really help his speech as he will have to communicate more. 
• He knows his ABC's he can label each letter and tell me words that start with each letter, he can also say the alphabet in order and identify the letters in written words.
• He knows his numbers 1-20 and can identify the numbers 1-10 and can count objects up to 20. 
• He knows almost all his basic colours and can identify them correctly. 
• He knows all the basic shapes and can identify them correctly.
• Eli doesn't enjoy drawing much which is something that we are trying to work on but recently we have been practicing drawing circles, faces and other shapes helping him learn to control a pencil in preparation for teaching him how to write.
• Eli can eat with a fork and a spoon but needs to learn how to use a knife to cut his food....I am planning to get him to help me in the kitchen more with simple tasks like preparing fruit. 
• Eli is toilet trained but is a little shy when asking others to use the toilet and needs help when pulling down his trousers but we are practicing this as well as him getting himself dressed, hopefully soon he will be doing it himself.

I will do a little update soon on how Eli's first week at pre-school goes so wish us luck!

LouLou.