Kindergarten - Day 3:

The kids are still on a half day schedule of class, then it's off to after-school care - which he loves! We're really starting to get the routine down, our son was up, starting the day off as we have spoken to him about - get dressed, do chores, eat breakfast, with playing sprinkled about with each one of the steps. I get him to school with just enough time to talk with a couple of the other parents. We're going to spending 9 years with these people, so we should start getting to know them.

Of all the years he was at Bright Horizons and the various transitions from room to room as kids come and go, I've never seen him transition as well as I have to Kindergarten. New friends, new rules, new teachers, new uniform, new, new, new!!! We feel that he's been ready for this now for some time.

One of his teachers at Bright Horizons was kind enough to give him a sweet going away gift and a very touching note. She wanted us to start a tradition that she had with her son. After the first day of school (we are doing it on the third day... maybe by high-school :) ), we are to take him out to ice cream and have him tell us about his day. Well, to me, it doesn't matter what you say, if there's ice cream involved, it's good with anything - especially with the topping of "happy kindergartner!" He wanted a McDonald's McFlurry, so off to McD's we were - holy smokes - I got more stories than bites of ice cream! Very very sweet idea, thank you so much. We'll keep it up.

Kindergarten Day 2

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - Day 2:

Ok, starting to get an idea of what the routine is going to look like.  Lucky for me, my wife had the forethought to wake up our son at 6:40 am, so we can get there by 7:40ish...  What a concept, get out of bed earlier!  Because he had such a good day the day before, he was pretty willing to get out of bed for another crack at kindergarten.

Tuesday we got there a bit earlier, in time to check out the before-school care with Mrs. Hammer.  Pretty simple, and of course, he came right in and made himself at home, what a great feeling.  I picked him up around 5:00 today, again I asked him how his day was, and he said with emphasis, “very good,” and proceeded to jabber on about some of his new friends and his amazing hot lunch!

Kindergarten: Day 1

Monday, August 23, 2010 - Day 1: Our little one and I were rushing to get to school on day one - figures... The feeling is pretty cool as we get to the school. The parking lot was full, so we had to park pretty much as far away as possible. I have my iPhone at the ready to video, but need to keep going as the looming 8:00 bell is about to ring. We make our way through the throngs of parents (who clearly have their routine down already) and arrive at the door. I see his new backpack on the bench just outside the door, send him over to pick it up. As he does that I knock on the door. Mrs. Davis opens the door says, "Hi Sawyer, we've been waiting for you!" He scurries through the slightly opened door - so the parents won't distract the kids - a moment later the door is closed... I didn't get to say goodbye, I love you, nada. First day of school, the kid is already gone. Oh well, no sense in making a big deal of it, right? It's only his first day of school - EVER!

I worked from home so I could pick him up at the end of the shortened first day. I get there a bit early to see if I can sneak up and observe the animal in the wild. All the kindergartners were outside, orderly and quiet, sitting at the lunch tables eating. These teachers must have the magic touch - it was amazing to watch. After they finished, they went back into the classroom for a few minutes. They were let out and he saw me standing there and came running over with the biggest smile on his face. It was impressive how much he loved his first day. On the short drive home, he told me all about it, wanted to call Mama and his babysitter to tell them all about it. Pretty cool.