First Day of Kindergarten

by Heidi

Gunnar’s First Day of Kindergarten

The day we have been anticipating finally arrived!

Surprisingly, our boy was not up and dressed at the crack of dawn.  We actually had to wake him up and coax him into action.

My sweethearts.

We arrived at school and Gunnar headed straight to his classroom.

He has 2 teachers this year plus an aide who has a fabulous reputation like the teachers.  Parents can’t tell us enough good things about this group of teachers.

The first thing the class did was sing a welcome song.

Then, each child was introduced, and given a name tag.  After we saw Gunnar get his name tag we headed out.

Graceanna felt like this.

I’m pretty sure she won the award for “most tears and loudest crying” on this first day of school.   She cried, “I want Gunnar” all the way out to the car and the whole way home.

I felt more like this.

Happily, in no time, it was time for us to go get Gunnar!  The back seat fighting commenced as usual which was a bit of a comfort to me seeing that some things stay the same.  I reminded Graceanna how much she missed Brother and also told him about her many tears.  This produced immediate reconciliation and hand holding….  A different kind of comfort for me.

Gunnar’s report of the day:

1 – We went to the outside playground!

2 – I played with a new friend.  I don’t know his name, but he sits at the red table (green was also reported).  He wears a watch!

3 – I sit at the orange table.  There’s only 1 other boy at my table.  He was not nice to me.  I told him to “stop.”

I found out several other things when I questioned him:

1 – They learned classroom rules.  The only one he could remember initially was “always obey the teacher.”  He remembered another one later, “never talk when someone else is talking.”

  2 -  I really wanted to know if  the snack we packed was similar to the other kid’s snacks.  It was.

3 – I also wanted to know if his water bottle was ok.  It was not.  He said he didn’t use it because he thought it was the wrong kind when the teacher described what they should have.

Ugh!  Thinking about my baby not having any water with his snack, left me feeling like this.

Gunnar said, “It’s ok Mommy.  I took a drink when I got my snack and when I put it away.  I just left my bottle in my backpack because I didn’t think I was supposed to have it.”

That’s my boy.

Adaptable.

Not bothered by the little things.

Ready for an adventure.

Comfortable and confident.

He had a fantastic day and is so proud to be in kindergarten.  I’m sure I will have a great day tomorrow, but the emotion of today has just about worn me out.  Let’s hope Sister has a better outlook tomorrow too.

Oh.  And, it’s a guarantee that my boy will have the right kind of water bottle tomorrow.

 

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