Yes, she had her first day of school-school on August 17. I was a nervous wreck but she seemed super excited! I made her goetta for breakfast (which she ruined by dipping in ketchup!) and got her all ready in the pre-selected outfit plus a cutie little hairdo and the backpack and lunchbox she'd picked out.
She's still pretty obsessed with Shopkins so both the backpack and the lunchbox (plus the water bottle!) were Shopkins.
She never acted nervous at all so I definitely tried hard to hide my nerves from her!
She was totally cute and totally excited...and was a great sport about letting me take lots of pics! Kindergartners do not wear uniforms at St. Joseph but I thought this little dress GranJan picked up for her at the Children's Place almost looked like a Catholic school dress.
School starts at 8:30 but she can get there as early as 7:30 and wait in Memorial Hall. I took off work on her first day but typically, she'll need to get there right at 7:30 in order for me to get to work on time(ish) so I wanted to take her that early on the first day so we'd both know what it was like. Dave and I have struggled with this morning routine - we feel bad that she has to wait for an hour in Memorial Hall and were worried there'd be no other kindergartners so she'd be sitting alone...the first day did not reassure me - check out the kindergarten table:
But she was smiling and doing fine! I stayed with her on the first day and even walked across the street with her to check out her classroom and get her settled (all of the other parents were doing the same...not just me!). We even saw our favorite 8th grader on the way through the school!
She started to get a little nervous once we got to her classroom and said hello to her teacher but then she sat with a girl she knew from dance class and they bonded over matching Shopkins backpacks! There was also fresh Play-Doh set out so she was happy!
Soon it was time for me to leave (and count down the minutes until I could pick her back up!) and she did fine with me leaving, too!
I had some errands and chores to keep me busy most of the day but I still couldn't stop staring at the clock and finally it was time to pick her up!
She said she had a great day and even made some new friends! There are two kindergarten classes and there are 25 students in each classroom. In order to ease the kids (and the teachers, I'm sure!) into it, they split each class into three groups. Some of them started on Tuesday, some started on Wednesday (Lucy included) and the rest started on Thursday. On Friday, all of the students showed up together...Lucy was a little nervous about her class size tripling but did great on Friday, too.
After school, I took her to the library to celebrate - she loves the Ft. Thomas branch because they have Legos but we don't often go there so she was happy. She chattered the whole way there and had fun playing until it was time to head home to our boys.
But on the way home, the school day caught up with her!
Friday went well, too, and I sat with her in Memorial Hall again until the teacher came to take them across the street. This time, she had company, which was nice. I tried to just walk her in and head out but she started to cling and cry so I hung around...every day it got a little better with me being able to leave earlier and earlier (and finally, I am able to just walk her to the front door of the school and be on my way).
Some days, Daddy can leave his school in time to pick Lucy up. Other days, she rides the bus home with Cleo! Donna got these pics of her first ever school bus ride:
A few more cute kindergartner shots:
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| Some homework... Great drawing of a giraffe and an elephant! |
