First Day of Kindergarten

I may have gotten ahead of myself with my last post.  After all, it seemed awfully easy to write about this transition to Teddy going to school.  It turns out that's because I was actually in denial until the moment that he got on the bus this morning.  Then, the stark reality struck.

As you can see from the photo, Teddy woke up raring to go.  With help from big brother, he got through the morning routine with enough time left over for the contractually-required photo session on the front porch.  Teddy has plenty of experience walking to the bus stop.  He's gone there most school days since he was very little.  Putting on his own backpack (handed down from cousin Colin.  Thanks, Colin!) made him feel like a grown-up school kid today, though.

A brief tangent: I've considered it important to his adjustment that Teddy start to identify his elementary school as his school, not just his brother's.  I have contributed to this linguistically by helping him call his childcare center his old school.  In the course of that, I may have said (every time) something about "kicking it old school".  It pleased me no end, therefore, when we drove by T's childcare center the other day, and he said "that's my kickin' it old school".

 We got to the bus stop on time, and the bus came on time (not early, whew!), which afforded us time to snap a few more pictures at the bus stop.  In the bus stop, picture, you of course see one factor that made it much easier to send Teddy off to kindergarten than it was with Charlie.  Namely, Charlie.  When Charlie went to kindergarten, the bus caused us as much or more anxiety as school itself.  Teddy has a built-in fourth-grader bus buddy, who could guide him into the auditorium and look for him in the auditorium at the end of the day when the kids sit in their "bus rows".  Teddy's thank you prayer at dinner was "Thank you that I got to see Charlie two times at school today."  

Our school has a nice tradition of welcoming kindergarten parents into the school on the first day to walk their kids to their classrooms.  Most every child in Teddy's class had an adult present.  All the kids looked like they were operating underwater; they moved at half speed, gazing around the hall and classroom, taking tentative steps.  Teddy may have been a little thrown by the fact that his official nametags say "Theodore", not "Teddy", the one word he can dependably read.  He followed instructions well for the 10 minutes I observed.  The teacher sent us all out at the appropriate time, and the kids, across the room, now, waved goodbye.


It may have been a mercy that I didn't end up alone for very long today.  First, a guy came to install a few ceiling fans at the house, and then Paige ended up coming home early to work at home in the afternoon.  Had I been alone on this first day that Teddy's in school, the tears that started when he boarded the bus may have returned.  As it turned out, I was just super-busy.  Had Teddy been with me today, I'd have had to say no to him a bunch of times because there was a lot to accomplish.


He came home tired and pretty pleased with his day.  He got a star, and although he reported that everyone got a star today, he also reported that he was "the only one who didn't get yelled at".  Sounds like a good first day.  Only about 179 to go until summer vacation.