RE: Preschool Preparing
In addition to reading the books (and hyping up how fun, fun, fun school is while reading them) there are some other things that may help. When it is closer to the time for school to start, let him pick out a backpack, etc. to take. Drive by the school, point it out, and talk about how it is HIS school. In those couple weeks, really hype up how fun school is and all the fun things he will do: paint, color, play outside, etc. And then expect the first few weeks to be rough. But he will undoubtedly soon get over it and love going to school. I honestly don't know how I'm going to break it to DD that school is over for the "year" after next week. Every day she says "I wanna go to school today!"
If he doesn't have a true lovey, I wouldn't introduce a stuffed animal. Unless he needs it for comfort, it could be a hassle to drag back and forth, find it on hectic school mornings, keep it clean, etc. Maybe find a photo backpack? But at DD's school, we brought in family pictures the first week, and they hung them all on the wall, so that the kids could look at mommy and daddy while at school.
HTH,
Beth, mom to older DD (8/01) and younger DD (10/06) and always missing Leah (4/22 - 5/1/05)