Preschool or not? That is the question.

Camden has one of those odd birthdays when it comes to school. His birthday is in November, which means that, here in North Carolina, he won't be able to start kindergarten until he's nearly 6 (August 31st is NC's birthday cut off). Honestly, I was completely fine when I learned that; I'd prefer he be one of the older kids in his class instead of the youngest, especially since boys tend to mature a little later than girls. But, I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do about preschool.

Camden will be 3 this year-- a good age to start preschool in my opinion. However, I wasn't entirely sure that starting him this fall was the best idea. First of all, he'll have a brand spankin' new sister at home. And that's a lot of changes to deal with at once; he'd be starting school literally a week or two after her birth. I just felt like that was a lot to throw at him: "Hey, here's your new sibling! Okay, now get your bags and head out the door to school!" I know it wouldn't be quite that dramatic, but you get my point. (Of course, the flip side of this argument could be that it would be nice for both Camden and me for him to get out and do his own thing while I adjust to having two children.)

Then there's Camden's temperament to consider. He's a shy kid. Not painfully shy like he used to be and his severe stranger anxiety is gone. But he's still shy all the same. If you put him in a room with 20 other 2 year olds, he will be more likely to observe while sitting next to me than to jump in and join the kids. If he was a super spirited kid, I'm almost certain I'd be enrolling him in preschool this fall. But he's slow to warm up and sensitive, and I feel like I need to be respectful of that.

The biggest factor in my decision, though, was the realization that Camden would need to be in the 2 year old preschool class this fall, even though he'd be only a couple months shy of 3 years old. It's that tricky November birthday getting in the way again. In my opinion, preschool at 2 years old resembles daycare a lot more than it resembles school. This is just my personal opinion; I'm sure some 2 year old classes are more structured than others. But, having worked in a preschool when I was in college, I remember the drastic difference in maturity between the kids in the 2 and 3 year old classes.

So, if it wasn't already obvious, we made the decision to keep Camden out of preschool this fall and enroll him in fall 2013. He will be just shy of 4 years old, but will have to be in the 3 year old classroom. An added bonus is that his cousin will also be starting school at the same time and we'll request that they're in the same class. I think that will help make the transition easier for my shy guy. And since Camden has a late birthday and won't be starting kindergarten until he's almost 6, he will still get in a full 2 years of preschool. I've already contacted the director of the preschool we want him to attend (the same one my older nephews attended) and will be touring the school and filling out official paperwork in January.

In the meantime, I felt like I wanted Camden to start working on some "preschool stuff" at home with me. Finding preschool curriculums online is pretty simple, but I also kind of wing it and come up with my own ideas too. I don't do anything too structured yet; instead, a couple of days per week, I tell Camden that it's "school time" and we sit at the kitchen table and do "work" for 30 minutes or so. Right now, we're focusing on shapes, numbers, and letters, but I'll be expanding our curriculum as time goes on.

Anyone else made any preschool decisions yet?

Gluing Cheerios in the letter A. He is a big fan of glue now.

The finished product.

Drawing an A in shaving cream.

Working with circles of all sizes. But mostly focused on how much he loves glue.