VBS

Grant attended Vacation Bible School for the first time this week. And so did I. I thought that since Grant's friends (my daycare kids) would all be attending with him that he would have no problem with me dropping him off for a few hours and then coming back when VBS was over to pick him up. I was mistaken! He didn't want me to leave....grabbed a hold of my leg and said, "Mommy, don't leave, stay here with me please." When I explained to him the VBS was just for kids and not for Mommys it didn't seem to matter much..he then said, "ok, just stay for three minutes then." So after three minutes I tried my exit strategy again -only to fail once more. So, I thought, it was the first day, he is the youngest one here, he's never been at a daycare or school away from me before...we will try it again tomorrow and so I stayed. So the next day...he said he would be a big boy and walk in with the other kids but demanded I stay in the car. I agreed. He walked in with Zoey but within 5 mintues Zoey walked out with him in her arms crying (not hard but he was definitely crying). So I once again I spent the day singing "Jesus Loves Me" and making crafts with Grant and his VBS classmates. Day three I decided to give it another try but he refused to walk in without me so I knew we were in trouble and again stayed. Day 4 and 5 I just accepted the fact that I would be an honerary VBS pre-k student. Although I wanted so desperately for Grant to be independent I also didn't want VBS to sabotage our efforts we will be making in the future when fall comes and he has to go to school alone. I didn't want to traumatize him or force the issue anymore... especially not just for bible school. Honestly, I would have just kept testing the waters if they would have been more equip.I would have just dropped him off and let him cry through the first day or two and have him just deal with it but those volunteers had their hands full already and in my opinon some of them were too old to even been helping with the little ones ( they needed to be with the older kids)- so I didn't think it would be fair to them or Grant to experiment with our separation issues during a chaotic time for them. So needless to say, Grant loved VBS...but would he have loved it if I wouldn't have been there? He made some new friends. Mostly girls. Strange how he prefers to hang out with girls-although some of the boys in his class were either a bit odd or way too outgoing which may have frightened him a bit. It frightened me at times. He enjoyed singing songs, playing outside, and making crafts. He must have listened some because one night last week when we were putting him to bed he said, "Jesus keeps me safe." He then added, "Jesus died and is my friend." This was all so out-of-the-blue that it really surprised me to hear him talk like that. Wonderful though that he at least got something out of the experience.