Kindergarten

Early this morning our little family of four ventured out on a walk to school. That's right. . . my little man Seth started Kindergarten today! Can you believe how fast he is growing up? We (Seth and I) were excited and a little anxious for this day to come. Mommy was not looking forward to waking up so early (since we have been spoiled by sleeping in, to the late hours of 7:30 a.m.), but somehow I managed to crawl out of bed, scramble some eggs and make some toast. While Seth ate a droopy-eyed breakfast, I made his lunch and talked to him about his expectations for the day. This quickly got his juices flowing and it was easy to see he was looking forward to his new adventure. Before we left, we sat in a circle and had a family prayer, asking for God to bless and protect Seth as he goes to school each day. Then the long 2.5 block walk began. . . I was not sure how I would feel walking away from the classroom and leaving my little sweetie there with a perfect stranger. Would he enjoy school? Would he have a good teacher? Will she love to teach and love her students? That is still to be determined, but since I taught Kinder when Seth was a baby, I know and remember how I felt when parents lingered on and on. . . so, we walked him to his classroom, helped him put up his back pack, took a "first day" picture with his teacher, gave one last kiss and hug and then said good bye. We were in and out in about 5 minutes. Drew kept asking how I was doing as we walked home and I would answer, "fine." I think I surprised him with NO tears all day long.

What Seth had to report about his first day of Kindergarten: "I drew this picture of a new friend I made today. In my picture we were playing and Mammaw was about to take a picture. Then it started to sprinkle and we just kept playing in the sprinkles. And then one minute later it started pouring rain on us and we just played in the rain too."

Drawing from left to right: Mommy holding Karsyn, Alexis (new school friend), Seth, and Daddy

[I just think his streaks of "rain" are so cute. - true words of a Mommy]

If any of you have kids in school and you ask the typical after school parent question: "What did you do today?" you know that your child is likely to respond, "I don't know. Nothing!" Knowing this, I tried to ask specific questions after school. . . three new friends he met, a center he tried, and a book they read. This is what Seth had to say about one of the read-alouds today: "I don't remember what it was called, but it was about a little raccoon that was nervous. He kept asking his mom, 'What are you going to do? What am I going to do? And finally, she kissed his hand and to him it felt like his mom was in his heart and with him all day long at school." This excellent back to school book is The Kissing Hand. I read it to my kinder kids the first day when I taught too. We would go on a scavenger hunt of the school... discovering all the places we "needed to know" (i.e. nurses office, library, gym, principal, etc.) We baked handprint cookies and put hershey's kisses in the palms of the cookies... those were some great memories! Makes me a little home-sick for my classroom and Ms. Ripley! Hope you have a great first day too Rip & an outstanding bunch of kids!

Tonight as I tucked Seth in for bed he smiled and said, "Isn't school lovely." I'm so glad he enjoyed his first day!