First Week of School

The first day of school was rushed. I thought I had given myself plenty of time, but I hadn't figured in (1) kids who would rather be silly and giggle than eat breakfast and (2) the incredibly long line of cars that were waiting to get a parking space so parents could walk their children inside.

Here she is all ready for her first day. Why I couldn't remember to take my camera with me after taking this picture I don't know (maybe it had something to do with trying to get 3 kids in the car)... but I left it at home. There wasn't a whole lot of time once we got there to take any pictures anyway. I helped Lila find her seat, gave her a kiss goodbye and left. No tears, although I did get a little misty-eyed walking back down the hallway. Fortunately, God knew I could use a friendly face because standing there was the ONLY person I knew who had kids at this school. So we went into the cafeteria together for the Principal's breakfast (donuts). Wyatt enjoyed a chocolate donut while we chatted. Then we went home. Wyatt asked "Is it time to go get Lila yet?" a few times that day, but overall he did well.

Then it was time to go get Lila. I learned from that morning and left with lots of time to spare. There were still cars in the carpool lane when I got there. 

I have a sign with Lila's name on it that I put in the car window. A lady with a walkie-talkie stands ten cars back and tells the faculty inside which children to bring out. As I got closer and closer to the front, there was no sign of Lila. Eventually I made it all the way into the first position and still no sign of Lila. A lady went to check and came back to tell me "we're looking for her right now. In all the rush, she probably just got mixed in with a different group (kids who get picked up by their parents or walk home go to the gym, not the cafeteria). Don't worry; we haven't lost a kindergartner yet." FIVE MINUTES PASS. Finally, here she comes with Lila. Turns out she was in the cafeteria... just sitting with the after school kid's club group instead of the car riders group.

She told me on the way home about how she got to have two snacks -- I send one along with her to have each afternoon because they eat lunch at 10:55 a.m -- but then she also got to have pretzels that they gave her. I quickly realized she was referring to the after school club snack, so I told her that she *probably* wouldn't get a snack like that tomorrow :)

Wyatt was happy to have her home. The school day is over at 3 p.m. so it is right in the middle of what was normally "room time". Depending on how well they do, I sometimes let them stay out or I sometimes make them have a little bit of room time... but I let them stay together.

Day 2 went much more smoothly. I even remembered my camera!

The line to get in to school on the 2nd day.

On the 2nd day, I walked her to the cafeteria. All the Kindergartners meet up in the cafeteria, and then the teacher takes them to the classroom right before the bell rings. (The first day we were allowed to walk them to their actual classroom.)

Lila's teacher is the lady in the orange shirt. The school has four K classes. They told us that they might have to move some kids around to get balanced classrooms (they would let us know at the end of week one), but Lila was able to remain with her original teacher.

Now, for some reason, I had it in my head that they told us after the 2nd day, we couldn't walk them in anymore. So for the rest of the week, I went through the carpool lane and just dropped Lila off. I thought this meant that they would come get her out of the car (like they did in preschool), but no. The kids have to walk in themselves. Lila quickly informed me that she "didn't want to be by herself." She walked so slowly into the building. To her credit, she didn't cry. I can't say that I didn't shed a couple tears on the way home. It was the toughest goodbye yet. The hardest thing about being a mother is the daily conflict between wanting your child to soar and the desire to keep them safe in your arms. It is especially hard when your daughter is so much like you emotionally that you can really empathize. I told myself that the next day would be easier for her and pretty soon she would be jumping out of the car and skipping into school. But by the 2nd week, she was in tears at breakfast and saying she didn't want to go to school anymore... all because she had to walk in by herself. So I parked and walked her in that morning. And guess what? No one stopped me. So for the past few mornings I have been walking Lila into school, and we have both been happier for it! We still pick her up via carpool, but someone brings her out to the car then. 

I am blessed with friends who think of me during life's transitions.

Some observations I have made now that we are getting a new "school" routine down.

1. Wyatt plays better by himself than with Lila. By that I mean he actually plays with his cars, etc. rather than just making a mess (which tends to happen when Lila is home).

2. Piper follows Wyatt around the house and wants to play with whatever he is playing with. It is really cute. Wyatt is surprisingly obliging with her - usually. Sometimes he has to be reminded to be gentle :)

3. Lila offers almost NO information about her day when she comes home from school. The two most common answers I get to my questions are "I don't know" and "I can't remember". I have learned to wait until dinner to ask about her day... amazingly she can remember more by then! :)

Some tidbits from our time at school:

1. One thing I have asked Lila each day is if she made any new friends today. One day she told me that she made her first "boy" friend named Tyler. She said, "He was doing a puzzle and I saw him" - at this point she puts her finger to her chin and taps her chin - "and I thought 'maybe we could be friends'. I just thought it. I didn't say it."

2. On Thursday night (of last week) I went in to give her a hug goodnight. She asked me what day is tomorrow, so I told her Friday. She then informed me that she thought she would get a turn to move the arrow on the calendar tomorrow because she hadn't gotten a turn yet. So then I informed her that if that was the case then "today" would be Friday, "tomorrow" would be Saturday and "yesterday" would be Thursday. She looked at me for a beat and then said, "I'll just remember today is Friday."

3. Almost every day when Lila has gotten in the car at the end of the day, she has informed me that she needed to go the bathroom... urgently. Yesterday she didn't quite make it before we got home. I was really perplexed by this because she hasn't had problems going to the bathroom in the past. I wasn't sure what the schedule was though because she had told me that they had bathroom breaks where everyone uses the big bathroom (they also have a single bathroom in their classroom). So after her accident, I tried to get more information out of her. Did you go potty today? When do they let you go? Before lunch? After lunch? After PE? Everything was met with "I don't know" or "I can't remember". Finally I said she wasn't in trouble; I just wanted to be able to help her figure out when to go so she would be able to make it home okay. All of a sudden she started crying and told me that the bathrooms have toilets that automatically flush (which are scary). So the poor girl has been trying to hold it all day to avoid those scary things. Luckily I was able to chat with her teacher this morning and thankfully the toilet in the classroom does NOT automatically flush (Lila hadn't used it yet). So I think we may have found a solution for her.

By the end of the first week, Lila was excited about writing. Not just reading. WRITING. Which they told us the kids will do a lot of writing this year. I guess all Lila needed was someone to suggest it. She quickly made this preschool bag her writing bag. She put a notebook, pencil and several easy reader books in it.

And then she wrote a story in her notebook. All by herself. It was 3 pages, and it had drawings to go with the words. This is the 3rd page. It says, "My name is Lila. I like to go to the farm. The End." That is Lila on the page with Mommy and Daddy (holding hands) in the background. 

Pretty cool for the first week of school.