Ava’s first day of Kindergarten last week was pretty emotional. At home, she was so excited for her new adventure.
Loving the new backpack!
She went inside the building happily, but the shit hit the fan right at her classroom door. Suddenly, my outgoing diva turned to an emotional shrinking violet.
I’m not sure what it was that triggered the freak out. The teacher? The foreign classroom? Strange kids? Who knows, but she clung to me like velcro. Ava latched on to me so tightly that when I bent down to console her, she knocked me clean over. On the floor. In a fancy work dress. Happy first day of school! Check out my mom’s lacy thong!
So, I got her to her seat and distracted her with jokes and crayons and new friends. Eventually she was all smiles and I left her in good spirits. Luckily, that’s how it’s been ever since.
There's that smile!
On day two, she got to ride the bus to school – something she’s been begging to do for over a year now. It picks up right across the street from our front door. And the best part is her little friend from down the street waits at the stop with her. She is so happy to get on this bus. Her smile is five miles wide. It steals my heart every single day.
About to board the bus for the FIRST TIME EVER!
And my fears of public school are only a bit realistic so far. She’s bored. Granted it’s only been a week and half, but Ava has already complained about doing ‘baby’ things. They sing ‘baby’ songs when they are lining up to go somewhere. They are just going over the alphabet and sight words and counting to 10. All things Ava’s done since she wasn’t quite three. But we had her in a private pre-school that gave a lot of one-on-one attention in addition to teaching a strong curriculum. Too bad we can’t dish out the cash to send her to private school. I’ve asked other moms around here and they say that things will improve. They say that the first month or so is just getting the kids acquainted with the environment and gauge the kids’ abilities. I hope that’s the case. There’s nothing worse than going to school ahead of the game only to fall behind.
Overall, Ava is super excited about school. I think she’s going to do well and things are just going to get better. Fingers crossed! (and toes, too)
Yep, the first week is assessing and seeing where they are at. At least here anyway. Even now in 1st grade they said that process takes about a month. But hopefully they can get her some work geared to her level so she doesn’t get bored.
My kid would kill to take the bus. She thinks it’s the best thing ever but we don’t live far enough. She looks like she’s doing great!
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Do you have any charter schools around you? We have Morgan at an Imagine Schools charter school that is phenomenal. We have a bunch of friends in traditional public school in our district and its incredible to see the difference in teaching. We have homework every night, they are doing math and she is already learning to add. The regular schools are working on colors and letters.