Three year old hates preschool - any ideas?

nonajean

Really he hates GOING to preschool - the teacher says once he's settled down he has a good time.  But the stressing out starts the night before, and now in the mornings he runs away from me when I get his shoes, he stresses as we walk in, and he wails as I try to leave.  It's pretty brutal, and what makes it MORE brutal is that it is really optional - I am a SAHM this year and he's in preschool mostly for the socialization.

I try to stay non-emotional about it and I don't ever give in, as that would DEFINITELY make it worse with him... I just dread MWF mornings!  Any ideas to smooth the transition would be appreciated!

kylara111

My DD had trouble adjusting as well (she's 2).  She seemed conflicted about it.  She'd ask me if she had school constantly and want to go, but once we started approaching the school, she'd start getting upset.  By the time we reached her class, she was hysterical.  The teachers called me in for a conference because she was spending most of the class crying.  We ended up transitioning her gradually starting with 1 hour (of the 3 hours class) and I'd go get her early.  Once she was okay for 1 hour, we moved up to 2 hours.  Then, she started staying the whole class.  It took a couple of weeks but it worked.  I also made sure to get there early so that I could be the first one in line once she stayed for the whole class because it seemed to make her anxious if other parents were getting their kids and she had to wait for me. 

Had that not worked, I would have pulled her out.  My situation was different from your since your DS seems to enjoy it once you're gone, but I didn't see the point of DD being there if she was just crying the whole time.