First Day of Kindergarten

My little boy is suddenly so big. Today was his first day of school. He's at a big school with around 600 students in grades K-5. That school is a well-oiled machine, I must say, because they were so organized today. We were to meet his teacher this morning at the P.E. Pavilion. When we got there she was there and the other children were all sitting in a line. Zachary's favorite friends from preschool were waiting for him.

They are, from left, Alex, Madison, Marshall, and Zachary. The girls are twins (duh!) and Zachary is completely in love with Madison. Their family went sailing with us a couple of weeks ago.

Zachary was SO happy to have the girls (and their big brother) on the boat with us. Their parents are good friends of ours, so we all had a great evening.

But, I digress. Today was a hard day for me. It seems as if Zachary just grew up all of a sudden a few days ago. I watched the class walk from the P.E. Pavilion to the classroom this morning, and they all just followed along like they were supposed to - none of the 'cat herding' of preschool days past. All of the kids suddenly seemed so responsible. A couple other mothers and I followed the class, delivering school supplies, and we all just hung back as they found their cubbies and placed their backpacks and lunchboxes in them. Only then did I start to panic - I told Zachary he would get to eat in the cafeteria today but ALL the other kids brought their lunch. Oh dear. Then they each wandered into the classroom and sat on the big circular rug. All, that is, except for Zachary, who stood there for what seemed like minutes just staring.

He finally found a seat, next to Madison. Whew.

Then I proceeded to worry about the lunch thing. What if he didn't want what they were serving? Would he whine and cry? Panic, panic. I left the class and went to the cafeteria, where the PTA was hosting a "Boo Hoo, Yahoo" Social for the Kindergarten moms. Another mom, a good friend of mine (she has one in 1st grade and another in pre-K there) said she would check on Zachary during his lunch period. She called me later and told me he was fine.

I picked him up from school today, but I have decided to let him ride the bus home now. I know it sounds crazy, and three days ago I would have said NO-FREAKIN'-WAY to the bus. That was before I learned that half his class (the ones that live in our neighborhood) all ride the bus, as well as ALL the kids on our street. I've enlisted the bigger kids in the neighborhood (by bigger I mean older, there are two 5th graders on our block) to watch over Zachary on the bus. Plus our neighborhood is the 2nd stop. Thursday will be his first bus ride home. Zachary's more excited about the bus than he is about school, I think.

So, my friend Leslie gets her daughter to tell her 5 things that happened at school every day. Michele, who will not be outdone by Leslie, gets her triplets to each tell her 5 things that happened at school each day. Not that I'm freakishly competitive or anything, but I knew I was going to pry 5 things out of Zachary today. I did, however, hedge my bets - I brought along bribes.

5 Things that Happened on the 1st Day of Kindergarten:

1. They played on the playground. Zachary likes the playground equipment better at "big" school because it has a big slide. That earned him a new t-shirt (the PTA was selling school shirts this morning).

2. Julia whined today. She didn't get the memo about no whining at Kindergarten, apparently. That only earned him his water bottle (with ice water, it's so hot here still).

3. He liked eating in the cafeteria. He chose a hamburger, peas, chocolate milk, and chocolate pudding. For five years I've coached him on healthy choices for food (there were some healthy options), I'm not sure where I went wrong. This was a lot of information, so I gave him the other t-shirt I bought this morning.

4. He got moved from the blue group to the yellow group, which made him unhappy. Marshall and Madison were in the yellow group, so that was short lived. That earned him some Cheez-Its. They eat lunch at 10:30 so I knew he'd be hungry.

5. He then offered lots of banter about specific children in his class. This was very informative, especially about he children I didn't know. That earned him the jackpot: Skittles. Or 'skitters' as he calls them. He's had them at birthday parties and for snack at his summer camps and loves them. I don't like to buy him candy, but this was a special occasion.

I got precious little info about what they learned or what the teacher talked about today, but I'm hopeful more information will be forthcoming. Tomorrow he doesn't have school, the other half of the Kindergarten class will attend, then the entire class will be there Thursday and Friday. I have to be dressed and ready at 6:45 a.m. because once I get the kids up it's a whirlwind to get out the door at 7:30. I'm used to getting up around 6:30 so it's not that much earlier, we're just used to a more leisurely breakfast. I'm glad we have tomorrow off.

Speaking of tomorrow, Zachary, Ryan, and I are hitting the links. It should be fun!