First day(s) of school!

This year we have a second grader and a kindergartner.

Whoa.

How on earth did that happen?

We went down to the school last week to meet their teachers and got the added treat of seeing Vicki’s teacher from last year (and the year before) there with her 7-week-old baby! The girls were excited to see their new classrooms and meet their teachers. Vicki is in a 2nd/3rd grade class this year, which is nothing new to us since she spent kindergarten in a K/1 class two years ago. Her teacher is Mr. G. and he seems like a lot of fun. Lexi’s teacher is Ms. P., and she seems like the perfect kindergarten teacher for Lexi – young and full of energy and new ideas. Our district switched to full-day kindergarten this year, so it will be interesting to see how our emotional roller coaster deals with that. Apparently they will have an afternoon rest time, which should hopefully keep the meltdowns to a minimum.

Vicki’s first day back was Tuesday, and she, of course, was excited and not one bit nervous (at least not that she would admit to!) After three months of not having to be on any sort of schedule, I completely forgot that we have to leave earlier if we’re walking than we do if we drive and I had everyone out the door and ready to go at 8:30, only to remember that school starts at 8:40 and it takes at least 15 minutes to walk there. So we hurried into the car and made it to school just before the bell rang. Vicki was the last one in line in her class, but she made it! We got to hear all the details at dinner that night, and apparently she’s already developed a teasing relationship with Mr. G., which comes as no surprise, really. She’s excited about the assignment to come up with a name for their class, since they can’t call it “second grade” or “third grade” and “second and third grade” is too much of a mouthful. Some of the ideas, apparently, were “twenty-third grade” or “thirty-second grade”. Vicki likes “two-thirds (as in 2/3) grade”. She’s also excited to have recess on the “big” playground now, along with all the rights and privileges that go along with that, like the opportunity to sign up to be a Garden Steward, which means helping to take care of the school garden during recess. She has always loved school and has pretty much fallen right back into the swing of things, although she says it’s still hard to remember that her class is on the other side of the hall now.

Lexi’s big day was Thursday, but she wasn’t excited or anything. She’s only been counting down for the last week now. Wednesday night she was up at 2:15, knocking on our door and wanting to know if it was time to get up and get ready for school yet. I managed to get her back to sleep (“Count to ten 20 times, and if you’re still awake when you’ve done that, then come and get me.” Works every time.) In the morning she was so excited she could hardly eat her breakfast. She bounced out the door (on time today!) wearing her new Hello Kitty backpack and carrying her purple camo lunchbox. When we got to school she waved goodbye to Vicki and lined up with the other kids in room 3. When she heard her friend Daniel’s dad tell him that everyone was probably a little nervous, she looked up at me, grinned impishly, and said, like she was sharing a secret, “I’m not nervous at all!” It helps, of course, that she’d already met the teacher three times and seen the classroom twice. Ellie and I went inside with her, where she hung her backpack on a hook, sat down at a table like she’d done it every day, introduced herself to another little girl, and chose a book to look at. Several of the kids were similarly confident, but one poor little boy was in hysterics and was making a few of the other kids nervous. On the walk home that afternoon (she only goes for a half-day today and tomorrow, and then starts full-time on Monday) she told me all about the day, including several things that I’m pretty sure didn’t actually happen anywhere but her imagination – apart from circle time, recess, and PE, they also apparently climbed a tree so high their heads poked out of the clouds, had 8 cookies each after recess, and climbed a ladder to the top of the rain shed (wherever that is) and then slid down on a super long slide their teacher put up just for them, bouncing from cloud to cloud along the way. What a day!