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Can you sit in the class with the kid and help out?
Once he makes a few friends then he would probably want to go and go on his own.
In the early stages, At the end of the day, the parents hang around outside waiting to get their kid. Can you get a few phone numbers and organise play dates with other kids. Even just straight after school.
It's only been two days? You need to give it more time....like two weeks before you are concerning yourselves. I have four boys, two are grown and out on their own. It's heartbreaking, I know, been there. My oldest are twins and one became Mr. Popular on the first day, the other? Let's just say there were alot of tears and sleepless nights but within a week or two he had a bunch of friends, a schedule and was happy as a lark. Put your big girl face on and walk him to his room and as hard as it is to do, treat him like a little man.
I feel your pain. My daughter went to school without a backward glance - no problems at all. My son cried, clung to me, clung to the door knob, sat in circle and cried... he would start crying when I woke him up in the morning just to get dressed for school. It was pretty awful for everyone involved. I had many discussions about waiting and trying to start him again next year. Truth was, I wanted him home with me... why put him (and me) through all this drama when I could keep him home where he was happy (I even talked about homeschooling him). All I can say is that by week 2ish, he had adjusted, made friends, and wasn't upset about it all anymore. There came a day when I got back in the car after dropping the kids off at school and realized that he hadn't cried... how easy it had been to leave him at school. Stick with the routine - hide your tears until you are safely out in the parking lot and it will get better.
My youngest dropped out of nursery school at 3 after 2 months of tears. In kindergarten, his teacher had to block one of the classroom doors because it lead to the outside, and he was determined to go home. It took a couple of weeks until he settled down, only to have him fight going once the half days became full days. He switched schools for 1st grade when we moved, and it was, once again, a long adjustment.
Now, he left for college 2 weeks ago, and loves it. I'm lucky if he calls once a week. Patience!
Poor guy! Kindergarten is so hard on us isn't it? It takes both of my girls about a full month to adjust to the school schedule, every year. I know you're in the thick of it now, but what helped me with my girls was to ask them for their "highs" or the best thing that happened that day. It helps refocus them to the positive. It's hard that the teacher isn't mommy, and it's huge for him right now. Another thing I did with my oldest daughter was teach her how to start a conversation with a potential friend. I told her to ask "do you have any pets?" or "do you have any brothers or sisters?" to get things started.
Thanks everyone for the replies...To comment on a few things...
Yesterday went better. For some reason today was pretty bad. He had a fit and was being escorted to class by one of the teachers when he "escaped" and my wife could hear him banging on the doors to the school screaming for her...good times...
So my wife sat with the principal and they went over a transition plan for the next two weeks where my wife will walk him to the doors with his class and then the prinicpal will walk with him and his class to the classroom. We'll try that out.
A few other things...no we are not showing that we are upset, because we are more frustrated really, but we keep it all positive and tell him that everyone has to do this and its no big deal.
We do talk about the positives of the day with him - like today, due to the heat up here in CT, they were able to wear shorts to school so we talked about how cool that was this morning and how lucky he was because I had to wear pants to work. I talked about how fun recess would be, etc..
I actually don't feel we are coddling him at all. My son is and has been for the full 5 years of his life been a creature of habit and changes usually upset him, just not to this extent.
No, he has no friends in this school. His pre-K was part of his daycare in another town so its all new to him. Someone mentioned play dates - great idea which we were already thinking about with a few parents that we know at the school who have kids in his class. Hope to plan one soon.
We actually don't want to sit in class because i think that would make it worst for him - its not the routine so we want him to get used to what his day should be like. The picture in the lunchbox (the principal told my wife about this one) is the same - we worry that once he sees us he will get upset all over again. What we have been doing is drawing a heart on his hand with our names which we tell him to look at if he is feeling sad.
Other kids are crying during the day - so say the teachers - although, the mornings ours is the only one having this big an issue with transition.
The transition plan sounds good. You may want to discuss this plan with your son so he will know what's going on tomorrow. If he transitions well each day, a little after-school reward would be nice. Good luck.
When is his birthday? Did he only just turn 5? Is he the very youngest in the class?
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