Is it a big deal if DS misses the first day of preschool?

Jen&Len · March 2011

DS will be starting half day preschool MWF's this fall. We're have a family reunion that we have to travel for in Sept. The tentative dates would be the week right before his school would start, so we would fly back on his first day of school. We're trying to decide if it's okay to miss the first day or if we should cut the trip short by a couple of days to get back in time.

STP2006 · March 2011

We actually did almost the exact same thing this year--family reunion across the country right when school started. He started a week late. No big deal here. It's preschool...not 5th grade...and it was kind of fun for him being the "new person" that nobody had gotten to meet yet. They were all excited to see him. He did miss a "start of the year" picnic, but I don't think it made too much difference.

GL!

kellnbri · March 2011

DS missed the first week of preschool this year. I am friends with his teacher and was torn as to whether to go on vacation that week or not. I am also a teacher and school is very important to me. She reassured me though that not much goes on the first week because it is a lot of getting the kids comfortable in class, dealing with crying, and showing them the routines. She knows my son and how outgoing he is and didn't think he would have any problems adjusting. So we went on our vacation

jlw2505 · March 2011

I personally would not want my kids to miss the 1st day of school as I think they do a lot of setting the ton type of thing, at least at my DD's PreK program. On the 1st day, they took pictures for their portfolio books, they made picture frames for the family pics the kids brought in, they made their placemats for meals. They started to talk a lot about the class rules. In the big picture, yes these are all things that the kids can do later either at home or one on one with the teacher but there is just something about the 1st day - regardless of age - that for me is a no miss thing.

BackBayGrrl · March 2011

It's totally okay to miss the first day of preschool. So many kids are crying (yours may/probably will too) that it's probably less traumatic to wait til the second day anyway--though the crying can last a few weeks.

Enjoy your family reunion and dont' give it another thought. Your "first day of school" photo can be on YOUR first day!

matt'sbride · March 2011

Hi, I hope you all don't mind me posting on here. I just happened to be lurking when I saw this question.

I'm a preschool teacher to a class of 12 three year olds. It is absolutely not a big deal if he misses the first day. The first few days are simply "get to know you" days and also focus on the basics of the classroom. For many of them, it's the first chance they have to be in a classroom, so it's important that we spend a lot of time learning the rules.

Don't sweat it and have a safe trip!

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