Ok I’m back y’all. And if you aren’t my parents and don’t want to read about my kid’s kindergarten adventures, move right along now.
Here are the highlights…
The most excited kid I have ever seen busted into our bedroom at 6:00 am all dressed, with backpack on. Ready to go! As spazzy as if it were Christmas morning. She’ll get over that pretty quickly I’m guessing.
No tears on the first day. Seriously. We are a family with hearts o’ steel I tell ya. We walked her in and she was a bit shy but the teacher was all smiles and perkiness and we were outta there in less than 2 minutes. Ack. I did ok during the day but just kept wondering what she was doing at that moment, if she was having fun, finding her way, did she get lunch, etc etc. Finally, time to go pick her up and hear about all the big girl adventures! Or something.
Enter a bit of a hiccup with the first afternoon pick up…to explain…I come from a TINY school…one building, K-12, 200 students TOTAL. Kiddo’s school is one building for the Elementary and there are 5 or 6 different kindergarten classes alone. Totally different world. The Elementary, Middle school and High school are all on the same campus which means 50 million different driveways and car rider lines and doors and places for me to get confused. But I managed to find the correct car rider line on her first day and was all like “oh yeah, new momma has GOT THIS yo!”…I’ve been sitting there for about 15 minutes congratulating myself and picturing the heartfelt afternoon reunion and bonding over stories of new friends and the fabulous cafeteria lunch she had, when I get a phone call from her after school program. (Yeah yeah, my kid is one of those poor souls whose parents work for a living and don’t have family in town so she has to go to an after school program. Sue us.) Said program wasn’t supposed to pick up the kindergarteners until Friday, but my kid was somehow put on the bus and was making her way across town. Enter mommy coronary.
I managed not to squeal my tires as I pull out of the beloved car rider line (did I mention it was the correct line?) and race to where my precious offspring is being taken. I’m imagining tears and panic and five year old hysteria. I actually beat the bus to the place and not so patiently wait for my poor lost child to run sobbing into my arms. Haha. So naive am I. The bus pulls up, kiddo comes be-bopping off it hand in hand with some deviant 1st grader, says “hi mommy” and proceeds to walk past me and into the building. WHAT???!!! I try to explain that this whole bus thing was a mistake today and her program doesn’t start that day. She is NOT a happy kindergartner. Kid didn’t want to go home!
Even though I was stabbed in my tender maternal heart, I’m glad that she is so independent and just fearless enough to enjoy new things and not be incapacitated by shyness. But still, geez.
Since then, she’s been two more full days and we are rockin’ this school thing. Sort of. I made her late for her 2nd day because I got caught in the wrong drop off line and had to go all the way around the entire campus. Yada yada yada. Momma needs to get with the program, I know. Day 3 was easier because the always prompt and non directionally challenged Accountant dropped her off and I picked her up at the after school place, which I can do because it’s just one building with one parking lot and one entrance. As it should be.
So far the only negative is that kid is wiped out at the end of the day and that makes her grumpy. Did you know kids no longer get naps in kindergarten? We, as a nation, have obviously gone to hell in a hand basket with this horrible decision. Today I found her cuddled up in a teacher’s lap and was informed that she had just tearfully told the teacher, “I think I want my mommy”. Ack. Tired tired girl. It is definitely mental overload for her. And me too. We have like 20 pounds of papers in folders with deadlines and dates and fundraising crap (hey, wanna buy some wrapping paper?), and agendas and parent alerts and ohmahgoodness this is NOT good for someone as disorganized as I am. But we’ll get it down soon I think.
Oh, some randomness…her school is in the top 5% for standardized test scores in the state. Not that I put much stock in those lame tests but I’d rather her school be on that side of the scale than the other. And she has been reciting the Pledge of Allegiance over and over again and has been obsessed with “good manners” (maybe we aren’t going to hell in a hand basket after all). Additional randomness…tonight she and I were in bed and she says, “Its time for cuddles”, so she gets the covers all arranged, snuggles up against me and says, “Now THIS is what I call love”…Good gracious me! ❤
Beginning of day vs. End of day….
Next stop? Harvard.
