That is a picture of my big girl going off on the bus to kindergarten yesterday, for her very first day. Kindergarten. My kid's in kindergarten. She spends almost 8 hours a day away from home, including bus time. (Seems like such a long day for a five year old, doesn't it?) And now, instead of having a clear picture of what she's doing with her time (or knowing *exactly*, because I'm there), I have to rely on the memory and whim of a five year old to have any idea what's going on! Okay, it won't be quite that bad in a few weeks, once I'm allowed to help out at the school and go eat lunch with her, but still, it's a big change. She was in preschool, of course, but it was a shorter amount of time, and I went in and talked to her teachers every day. I guess I didn't know exactly what she was doing, but this feels much bigger. You're more distanced once they go to real school. Plus I miss my girl!! I'm okay in the mornings, because we're used to that, but by about 2:00 I want her home! (Although as a side note, apparently she takes a lot more energy than her sister, because I've accomplished a lot since she started!)
On the plus side, so far she loves it. She was tremendously nervous about the bus, and the second thing she said to me yesterday afternoon was "I love the bus!!" And she says her teacher is really nice, and of course she's already made friends. And she loves learning things, so she's having a ball. Not to mention, they can earn "dollars" by being good, and they can use the "dollars" to get prizes at the end of the week. At the end of the first day, she already had six bucks! Her teacher must've slowed the rate down today, though, because it sounds like she only got one today. ;)
It's funny - they gave us a copy of her schedule, but I didn't quite understand all of it, I don't think. She said today that they had Spanish class. Who knew? I guess that must be part of "specials", since I had no idea what that meant. I'm looking forward to being more involved in things in a few weeks, so that I have more of an idea of what's happening. But even then, I'll never really have the same clear picture of her activities. It's normal (and honestly, we're happier when she has some school), but it still makes me a little sad. Plus I'm afraid of what she's going to hear about at school. (At camp this summer, she came home and was wondering who Hannah Montana was *and* was told that "Thomas was for babies". We were able to convince her that one was ridiculous, anyway. Of course, this is the camp that thought Open Season - rated PG - was an appropriate movie for 5 year olds. Hmph.)
This was M at our dropoff yesterday:
She tried to follow A onto the bus! Ies had to catch her... To be honest, she's actually been fine during the day, but I think she'll be glad once her school starts. And boy, are they happy to see one another when A gets off the bus! The big smile on A's face and the giant hugs for both of us are just lovely.
So, kindergarten. My babies are growing up!
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