August 20, 2008

My big girl starts kindergarten!!!

I can't believe the time has come that I'm sending my oldest to kindergarten. I am really so excited for her, because I know she's going to love it. She has been praying every night that she won't be nervous and tonight she prayed that she would be good at school and that she would make friends. Sometimes, I think my little ones are wise beyond their years.

Getting ready for school has been a little difficult for me- for many reasons. The obvious one is my foot. To be honest, my mom has been such a huge help with getting her ready, that I feel more prepared than I would have if I'd done it myself without a hurt foot.

The big reasons it has been difficult...

We live in an area where half of the school age kids live in the boundaries of one school and the other half live in the boundaries of another. The school we live in the boundaries of is very very old. I've never had a great feeling about the school, although everyone I know has had great experiences there. Then there's the other school. It is brand new, beautiful and part of the state's technology in the schools pilot program. They have computers in every classroom. Which, if you take a look at me and Spry, you would see why the technology part is appealing. There is a big but though, there are 30 kids in each of the kindergarten classes. THAT'S A LOT OF 5 YEAR OLD'S. Oh, the other but is that we didn't get permission granted to transfer.

There is also a Charter school in our area. Now with Charter schools you have a lot of different positives as well as negatives- which I can go into on a different post. We applied for their lottery in February and were put on the waiting list. Last Thursday I decided to call and find out where she was on the list. She was the next one they were going to call and extend an offer to. I was so thrilled. Immediately I started looking online at uniforms and the cute blue/red plaid that she will have to wear on "Dress Mondays." I showed them to Bug and she just broke down that she hated them and didn't want to go there. Here I am, thrilled and grinning from ear to ear and she has a melt down.

All of her fears and tears made me question if we were doing the right thing. I talked to a few mom's in the area and found out that almost all of the other kids in the neighborhood are in afternoon kindergarten and Bug was in morning. Also, the teacher she was assigned to is the only one that one of the moms had heard anything negative about. So, I started feeling better about things again. Unfortunately, Bug was still pretty nervous.

Yesterday we, (my mom, Bug and I) went to her kindergarten assessment. She was a little shy but obviously thrilled about her classroom, her seat, the rug and luckily her teacher. She did a great job on her assessment and finished up with a back walkover for her teacher.

Phew, we were both feeling great about it- FINALLY.

Today her plaid skort and jumper came. Oh my goodness they are so adorable. I can't wait until Monday to take pictures of her all dressed up in her full uniform. My mom and I also ran by Children's Place and the Gap and got her a couple of polos so that she's set for tomorrow and Friday. She really liked all of her clothes. Phew- we made it over another hurdle.

Now for tomorrow, wish us luck. I pray she does as well as I'm expecting her to. In the little while that I've been a mom, (yes 5 1/2 years is not very long), I have learned that you are not necessarily going to get what you expect.

Check back tomorrow evening to see how she did.

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