First Day of Kindergarten

Finally, the big day -- the first day of school! Although he was a bit nervous, Scott was well prepared and handled his bit day like a star.



His kindergarten teacher mailed us a letter about a month before school to introduce herself. It included a photograph, so that she would already be familiar to the kids before the first day. The school also gave us a count-down calendar, with an activity to do every day to help prepare mentally or physically for school. They were mostly simple things, but it seemed to help Scott feel ready. He had also visited the school a few times and wasn't so intimidated by it anymore.



He had his new backpack, his new shoes and some new shirts to help him look the part. We had picked up some inexpensive shirts with no graphics on them, and we used printable heat-transfer paper to turn them into cool Battle Force 5 and Power Rangers Samurai shirts. Scott also had an extra aerodynamic haircut for school, provided by Dad. Apparently, I am getting out of practice cutting hair, and I cut the front shorter than the back, so R had to go back and even it out.



When he got there, he found that his class was on one half of a large classroom area, with another kindergarten class on the other side. To his delight, 7 children from his Sunday School class at church were in the combined group, 2 of them in his own class.



Scott and Noah are really good buddies, so Scott was really happy to be in a class together.



One of the kindergarten teachers took the children on one side of the room to learn a little song while the other provided some orientation for the parents. Then the kids came back and sang the song for their parents, giving their mom or dad a little sticker as a way to say good-bye. Scott had no problems when R and Katie left him there. He told me later that there was a girl who was sad, but he kind of shrugged like he couldn't understand why.



He came home with a plastic cup of soil with a bean seed planted inside. There was a little story with it for the benefit of the parents -- a story about letting your little kids climb the little beanstalks so that they can learn to tackle the bigger ones later on. It was sweet. I think the day was harder for us than for him. When the afternoon was over, he was a bit surprised that it went by so quickly, and he was anxious for another chance to try the activity centers. His career as a Toddler is officially over and he is now a Student.

[Sniff.]