Jennifer Hudson: I'll Miss My Son When He Starts School

Dimitrios Kambouris/Wireimage

As summer draws to a close, Jennifer Hudson will be experiencing a big milestone with her 4-year-old son David Daniel this fall. He’s off to preschool.

“Oh my God, he’s getting ready to start school. I’m going to miss him because he won’t be able to travel with me,” Hudson, 31, told PEOPLE at last Sunday’s VMAs.

“In his mind, anything previous was yesterday. So he was like, ‘Mommy, you took me with you yesterday,’ and I’m like, ‘I know, but you got to get ready for school now.’ So that’s the downside. He’s bound to home now.”

There are some positives to staying home for the Oscar and Grammy award-winning star’s son. He will be able to participate in his new favorite activity — working out with his dad, David Otunga.

“I woke up the other morning and he was doing leg ups in between two stools and push ups and lunges with his father,” she says. “I was like, ‘Really?’ It was so adorable.”

Although her little guy likes to imitate dad, “I like watching him come into his own,” adds Hudson. “I don’t want to tell him what he can and can’t be.”

— Paul Chi