Back to School

Both kids started back to school today! Abby is in the 3 year old preschool class at Holy Spirit, while Nate is in the adjacent building, in kindergarten. Yes, I said kindergarten :(

NATE

We have been building kindergarten up for weeks to Nate. He has had such a great summer with his friends, especially Jack next door. So I thought going back to school was going to be a hard sell. He did surprisingly well though, and was especially excited to wear his "new black kindergarten shoes" today. (His school has a pretty strict dress code, from head to toe. The shoes have to be completely black - even the Nike swoosh! - or completely white. Luckily, he thought they were fancy, but I have different feelings :)

Anyways, he got to meet his teacher Mrs. Davis yesterday at Open House. His class has 14 kids in it, and about half he already knows from last year. Unfortunately, his two best buds are in the OTHER kindergarten class, but once he found out both classes would have recess together, he seemed to take it in stride. Although I'm sad he won't be with A&C everyday, I am hoping he will use this opportunity to branch out and make some more friends. And what makes me even happier is that during Open House, Mrs. Davis said numerous kids saw Nate's name on his cubbie and said "Oh yeah! Nate's in my class!" :)

Normally, Nate is a bear to wake up in the morning on school days. But today, he hopped down the stairs at 6:25 am and said "Today's my first day of kindergarten!!" I was happy to see him excited, and even happier that I didn't have to wrestle him out of bed. He rushed through breakfast and then ran upstairs to get his uniform on. The shorts are a little long - again, strict dress code - but I still think my little Catholic boy looks cute! :)

 They let the parents come into the school this morning - usually we have to drop them off in the front circle - so it was nice for him to show Daddy his classroom, and watch him get settled. He found his cubbie right away, and loved the new school supplies Mrs. Davis had waiting. I am hopeful for a great year!

When I picked him up this afternoon, the first thing he said was "I saw Abby on the playground twice today!" :) The preschool shares part of the big playground with the elementary school. I love this. Then he had about 2 minutes to tell me stories of his day before we picked up Chatty Cathy at preschool. He did lots of crafts, "easy" work, ate all his snack & lunch, and had a dance party where he got to pick his own personal dance space. Sounds like a good day to me!

ABBY

For weeks now, I thought Abby would be starting school on Wednesday (tomorrow) instead of today. She is going to preschool on MWF, all day. (So I can pick up she & Nate at the same time, 3:10 pm. Hooray for me!) Well, when we met Abby's teacher at Open House, she said it would be fine for Abby to come today as well. Just another reason I already love her teacher! Mrs. McCullough has been there for 25 years and I already know her a bit from Nate being in the preschool for two years. According to her, she has a great group of kids this year, topping out at 18 students. Abby has a good girlfriend in her class, Mia, as well as her "boo" David :)

After we dropped Nate off at the elementary school, we walked to the preschool to drop Abby off. We were a few minutes late (I know, NOT like me!) but it didn't matter b/c her class was quite the chaotic scene this morning. One kid was literally screaming "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY" over and over, and at the top of his lungs. Abby just kinda looked at him like, "What's his problem!?" :) My girl loves school and was so excited to show Daddy her cubbie, the play kitchen, and some baby dolls. I have no doubt that she will excel this year and I love that she is so social and loves being in school!

When I picked Abby up, the first thing she said was "You are late, Mommy & I had green potato chips." Clearly, it took me a few minutes to decipher all this. Apparently, the elementary school had an early dismissal at 1 pm, but NOT the preschool. Oops. So when I went to get her at 1 pm, she looked at me like I was crazy (as did her teacher). To top it off, I didn't send her napmat, since I didn't think they'd be napping. Double oops. So she spent the first hour of her naptime (12-1), sitting at the teacher's desk, coloring. And then the teacher couldn't find where I'd packed Abby's snack (in the front pocket of her bookbag, I thought this was a normal spot), so she gave Abby some chips from her own lunch. Triple oops! 

Guess I need a little more time to figure out all these rules! The carpool line waiting was 20 minutes deep too, so that's something else I need to get used to. 

Abby did say she had a good day and talked about 2 new friends, the "purple girl" and "pink girl." (She never finds out people's names, but rather, identifies them by what color shirt they are wearing)! She said she had fun "singing, playing, coloring, and eating." So I guess that's all I can hope for a first day.

So happy my kids had a great time today, and hope that this continues throughout the year!