First Day of Kindergarten

 

Well, after a long debate and lots of prayer, we decided to send Alison to Hardy Elementary School for Kindergarten.  She was thrilled, which made the process of letting go, a lot easier.

Walking up to school

It was extremely hard for me to let go...not just of all the control of my little girl, but of the picture I had painted in my head.  I was sad that I wouldn't be the one to see her learn something new or watch the excitement in her eye as she played a new game.  I wouldn't be the one to comfort her when she was frustrated or the one see her make new friends.  It was hard to look past what I thought 'should be' and look to what 'could be'.  Ultimately, our decision came down to Eliot.   We realized that our middle child was lacking a lot of one on one attention and needed some time of his own.
 

Monday I was a wreck.  The bubble I had so carefully surrounded her in was about to pop.  Had I prepared her for all that was to come?  What if she couldn't open her lunch?  What if she had to go to the bathroom, but was too shy to ask?  What if she didn't make any friends?  What if she really isn't as smart as I think she is?

At her spot in the classroom

Tuesday morning came and I was flooded with texts from friends saying they were praying for me and I certainly felt the Lord's peace that day.  There were no tears and only a little panic in the car when I realized I forgot to pack a napkin in her lunchbox.  Her teacher's name is Mrs. Zawodny...why couldn't she have Mrs. Smith?  But she is a very nice, well seasoned teacher, who loves Alison and has promised to take good care of her. 

When we got home, I knew right away we made the right choice.  Eliot plopped down with a stack of books and we just sat and read however many he wanted.  I'm sad to say that has never happened, at least without the interruption of an older sister wanting a turn to read a princess book.  Colin was fussy that afternoon and it took me the whole day just to get a shower in-and that's when it hit me-if I didn't have time for a shower, I wouldn't have time to do school with Alison.  She needs structure and activities and education and I just can't give that to her right now.

playing legos

The report of the first day:

Did you know you could buy lunch at school?!!!  She couldn't stop talking about being able to pick out her own lunch and she assured me that Mrs. Zawodny said she would help her buy it.  We did let her buy lunch today (she picked chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and a bowl of fruit) and we agreed that she could get a "hot lunch" every Friday. 

Can you believe we had to wear our shoes ALL day?!  I could hardly do it!

I told her that I would often think "I wonder what Alison is doing right now" and she said matter-of-factly I was working...she loves her work.

She brought home a picture she drew...she was supposed to draw her family...there were only three people: mommy, daddy, Alison.  When I asked her where the rest of her family was, she said, "I didn't want any brothers on there.  I like it best just you, me and daddy."  I'm not sure what this means or how to handle it...

She was nervous about walking to her classroom all by herself the second day (we were only allowed to take her to her room the first day) and asked a billion times if we would take her.  Rest assure that Ben would not let anything stop him from making sure she got there okay, so today he walked her to the door and got a teacher to walk her to her room. 

Some of the school rules are dumb and communication isn't the best, but so far the kick off to kindergarten has gone great!