Today I took my first born child to kindergarten.
(It's a long story how we went from homeschooling to a public school Spanish immersion program, so we'll save that for another post.) Overall, it went really well with the exception of my small breakdown the night before regarding the logistics of it all. I am a go-with-the-flow night person, so this "getting up at the crack of dawn and being somewhere with completely fed and dressed children by 8:30am" business is a killer. And then packing a lunch everyday? I mean, come on. I already have to figure out breakfast and dinner! But I guess that's why they pay me the big bucks...
So we managed to survive with flying colors. On a whim, I took my camera with me and because I saw other weepy parents snapping pictures of everything, I gave myself permission to do so as well. Prepare yourself for a shamelessly, over-the-top, detailed account of this extremely significant rite of passage. What can I say? I'm in the blogging stage of the grief process.
So here is Leah in her Grandy funded uniforms.
I have to brag that I got 8 navy bottoms (pants, shorts, jumpers, skirts) and 5 yellow tops all for $57 at local thrift and consignment stores. I hate the mall and I like a good challenge.
And she's now modeling her Grannie Stannie funded backpack. Let's hear it for grandparents, eh? And of course John's got his backpack on too.
Welcome to John Tyler Elementary School.
It's about a mile from our house and the 30 minute walk this morning was great because I got us out of the house on time (gasp!) and the weather was really nice.
Here's the cafeteria where Leah ate her lunch.
Here is said lunch.
Yes, I took a picture of her lunch. There's some sort of bizarre emotional investment in making your child's lunch. I wrote her a note with stickers on it and cookie-cut her sandwich in the shape of a heart. But apparently lunch making has become a competitive sport, so at least I'm not as bad as these folks.
She ran into her neighbor and friend, Io, so that made her day already.
Here is her classroom...
and her cubby.
Unfortunately, she is subject to the minor torture of having to explain in new situations that she goes by her middle name, not her first. It's good for this class though because there were about 7 different "A" names that sounded a lot alike.
This is her teacher, Senor Rose. There are 16 kids in the class and a full-time teacher's aide.
I think it was starting to sink in for her that this was a very new environment with new people and a new language.
But then she crawled across the circle to help this little boy tie his shoes! It was really sweet.
This is where she had recess.
And this is where the new Outdoor Classroom will be by the end of September (or October, but probably December). Very excited about that. When I filled out the PTA form, I selected this as one of the committees I wanted to be on. Oh yeah. I'm now a member of the PTA, baby!
John kept saying that he was sad that Leah and Daddy had to go to school. So we drowned our sorrows in a chocolate croissant from a great little European market near our house and he seemed to do okay. Noelle was just along for the ride.
So when I picked Leah up SEVEN HOURS later, she was happy and chatty and hungry. Apparently she didn't have time to finish eating because lunch was only "half an hour." She also declared that she was the only one who didn't get in trouble, but after more investigation it turned out that there was one kid who was acting up and got a few time outs. When I asked if she understood the Spanish, she said not really but she didn't seem too bothered by it and the teacher said she followed along quite well. And before we left she was trying to set up play dates for the rest of the afternoon. We put her to bed at 7pm and she's still up there babbling to herself. As my friend joked, "I hope Leah finally develops some social skills!"
All in all a good day. Thank you, Lord! And thanks to all who called and emailed and facebooked to see how I was doing. You are sweet friends.
Alright, gotta go do it again tomorrow!
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