Kindergarten

When Sadie was a baby I thought this would never happen. People told me it would, but I didn't believe them. Some days, when the crying and the screaming and the potty training seemed never ending, I would pray for this day to come. Some days, as I rocked her to sleep or listened to her innocent and completely joyful giggles, I would pray that this day would never come. It seems as of lately I offer up prayers of the later kind a little more frequently, but come this day did. Sadie grew up and started kindergarten.

 

 

Alyssa was feeling a little left out so we got her in on the first day of school picture action

 

Sadie's birthday is a late summer birthday. In fact, she just barely turned 5 a few weeks ago. So, Ryan and I (and by "Ryan and I," I mean, mostly me) have been agonizing over whether or not we should send her to kindergarten this year or hold her back until next year. We obviously decided to send her. I think either way it would have ended up just fine. She is smart and super social so I think she will do great in a lot of ways. I am hoping that whatever she is behind in she will be able to catch up quickly without too much trouble. Fingers crossed!

 

All summer we have been working on her letters and numbers and other such school-like things and she has been doing fantastic! You can imagine my horror when we went to kindergarten assessments last week and she told her teacher that she didn't know what the letter "A" was. I asked her later what was up and she said that she was just pretending not to know because she thought it was fun...ay, yi, yi! I guess I can't fault her for having a great imagination. On the positive side, she did end up knowing a lot of stuff I didn't even know she knew, like reading words out of a sentence.

 

Last night for FHE we talked about Priesthood blessings and Ryan gave her her first school year fathers blessing. He talked about being brave and not being scared on the first day. He blessed her mind to learn quickly. He talked about her safety and her listening and obeying her teacher.

After her blessing we took her up to the school and went over drop off/pick up procedures, lining up at her classroom, safety rules and other rules we expect her to follow while at school. I think this ended up being really successful. Sadie seemed comfortable with what was going to happen on her first day. And I felt reassured that she wasn't going to wander off with some stranger.

 

Just when I felt I was comfortable and confident that I was going to be OK with sending my little baby off into the cold, scary world, we got an email from the school alerting parents that a man had been trying to lure kids into his car after school. We got another email today. The same man trying again to get kids to go home with him. I know we hear about this kind of thing in the news, but why is it happening at my school on my child's first day? Freaky!! It is stuff like this that makes me pretty sure that I am more nervous about kindergarten than Sadie is. I offered up some prayers last night, that is for sure. I think they worked because I woke up today feeling calm about sending her and excited for her.

 

 

Well, the first day came. Sadie did GREAT! And I did pretty OK too. We walked up to the school. She patiently endured the pictures I made her take. Then she said goodbye and ran to the playground. When I say ran, I mean RAN. No hesitation, just excitement. We got there a few minutes early (I wonder how many more times that will happen this year? Probably none:)  ) so she played on the playground while she waited for her teacher. She turned back to wave a few times, but then the bell rang and her teacher gathered them into the room. And she was gone. One of the first in the classroom. She was the first to hang up her backpack and she quickly found her seat.

Sadie is the one with the blue backpack and purple shirt. Also, she is the one RUNNING to the playground

When her teacher opened the door, she was gone!

One of the first kids in the classroom

Ryan and I tried not to be hovering parents, so we hung back by the fence and just waved goodbye. I think we did better than some of the parents, but I couldn't resist a little sneak peak just to make sure she was finding her way to her seat. She did perfect.

 

She found her seat all by herself and just waited for the day to get going

Ryan and I walked home mostly in silence. Some of my thoughts were of the melancholy sort...OK, I was holding back the tears. Gone are my days of chillin' with my little buddy all day long. But, some of my thoughts were of excitement. I am excited to see her learn and progress and to make new friends. And, near the end of our walk home a few little thoughts of relaxation and relief snuck into my head. 3 whole hours of only one child...and hopefully that one will be asleep for most of those 3 hours. Just think how much I am going to accomplish! Today I got in a run, a stress free lunch and a few minutes of completely mindless, uninterrupted tv.

 

At 3:15 I headed back up to the school to get Sadie. She came out much the same way she went in: the first one out the door. Her eyes got wide when she saw me and she yelled, "Mommy!" and ran over to me. It made me feel pretty good. I was glad that she had a good day and was still excited. I am also still (a little selfishly) glad that she is excited to see me and isn't too embarrassed by me yet. I will cling to what I can for as long as I can. I am starting to realize just how fast these years fly by.

 

The whole way home we chatted about her day. She sits next to Alex, Jack and Mackenzie. Her favorite part of the day was playing on the playground and going to P.E. She earned a pink sucker. They read some stories about the first day of school and her favorite one was called, "First Day Jitters." They learned about the number zero and she didn't finish coloring her picture so she needed to do that when she got home. I was pretty impressed by the report because the only thing I got out of her after preschool was, "I don't know."  Like, I would say, "How was preschool today?"  Sadie: "I don't know." Then I would try, "What did you learn?" Sadie: "I don't know." You get the idea. What she did all last year at preschool is pretty much a mystery to me. So this report on the first day of kindergarten was pretty much mind shattering.

 

So, there you go. I would count day one a success. I let her know tonight at bedtime that she would be going to school again tomorrow and she said that tomorrow she would be scared because today was her very last day of being brave. We shall see. I think seeing the playground might change her mind. Here we go. KINDERGARTEN!