Preschool Family Fun Night

Yesterday, Philip and I went to a Family Fun Night at his preschool. Since it was just the two of us, I didn’t get to take many pictures. I couldn’t let go of him in the gym because he just wanted to run. That’s not a bad thing, but he doesn’t necessarily watch where he is going. I didn’t want him to run into another child and have them both topple over in tears.

Those pictures that I did take weren’t that great and didn’t really capture the parts of the hour-long event that Philip enjoyed most. But I’m posting them anyway. And, since I’m feeling lazy, I just going to make a list of our experiences.

1. Philip waved at the preschool director when we entered the lobby. She told me that he had said “hi” to her that morning. He has been doing something approximating a wave and saying “hi” to his teachers for a few weeks now.  It started at the other Family Fun Night that we attended earlier this month.

2. At the registration table he didn’t want to choose a bag. It was nice they offered him a choice of color, but Philip was more interested in seeing what colors were there and examining how they were arranged. When I finally picked one for him, he wanted to put it back where it belonged.

3. I decided we should start in the gymnasium. I figured we would have more success with the craft area if Philip had a chance to move some first. We went to the ring toss first. Unfortunately, he wanted to disassemble the targets by removing the pegs from their bases. When given the rope ring to toss, he didn’t aim at the targets-he just threw it as high as he could in the air.

4. The experience with the hopscotch was similar. Philip didn’t want to throw the marker on the numbered mat-he wanted to fling it in the air. Once we took away the markers, he then got down to try to disassemble the mat.

5. The parachute with balls was the highlight for Philip. He loved everything about it: the movement of the parachute, the balls bouncing on the fabric and rolling off onto the floor. He would chase the balls that rolled away. He threw them in the air. He gathered them up to hug to his body. He did a lot of smiling.

6. For every activity in the gym there was a prize. Every time Philip was offered a prize he wanted to put the object back in the box. Because that’s where it obviously belonged. Kind of like the bag at the registration table.

7. When we returned to the cafeteria, we skipped bingo. They were using cereal as markers on the boards. I had visions of puffed cereal flying through the air. No thanks.

8. Philip spent quite a while playing with a foam peg board. I didn’t get a picture of the tall stack of pegs he put together. He turned the board over to push the pegs from underneath. He balanced the board on the tall tower of pegs that he constructed. Best of all, when I told him we were all done, he helped put away the pegs without throwing them or crying.

9. There were two crafts. The first, which we skipped, was to make a hat. I was pretty sure Philip would not want to wear it. The other make-and-take was an umbrella. There was half a paper plate which the adults would staple to card stock. The kids could then take stickers to decorate the top. Philip was more interested in the scraps than in putting the stickers on. When I got the pipe cleaner for the handle, Philip was intrigued. He took the pipe cleaner to play with and carried it with him for the rest of the time.

10. We returned to the gym, and Philip put down the pipe cleaner to play with the parachute again. Did I mention how big his smile was?

11. We tried the bean bag toss. Hey, the kid loves to throw, so I should channel this, right? I asked another student to demonstrate. Philip watched, but rather than throwing the bean bag that I offered, he went right up to the board to inspect it. He retrieved the bean bag that the other child had thrown and then spent quite some time feeling the netting that catches the bags. I let him do this until another child was ready to play.

10. The woman who was distributing the snack bags saw how interested Philip was in the pipe cleaner, so she gave him two more. He played with these while eating a snack of animal crackers and jelly beans. Surprisingly, he did not want the cheese puffs.

11. The event was almost over, so we took our snack home and showed Daddy everything that we had received: sunglasses, a ball, a whistle and coloring book about bugs and a bag of crayons. For feeling out a survey, I got a door prize. I picked out a book about emotions that I think Philip will enjoy, too.

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