Starting School

As so often happens, I am starting here with an apology. Sadly, when life gets busy, the blog seems to be the first thing to go. I'll try to be better but I won't bother making any promises.

Last week was a BIG week in our house. Pk started school at the same time that Dh and I returned back to work after a summer at home. Fortunately, my parents were able to come up for the week to deliver Pk to her first day at school. Ours does a staggered entry and the JKs only go for 90 minutes on their first day and we wouldn't have been able to manage drop off and pick up otherwise.

Pk was so excited but unfortunately, our start was a bit rough. Sadly and unlikely as it sounds, poor Pk had been stung by a wasp four times in the last month, rendering her absolutely terrified to be outside. We had arranged for Pk and her two best friends to walk to school together (with their parents). We wanted to get pictures and have it be a wonderful time. The boys were thrilled but Pk's fear of bees meant that she was NOT interested in being outside and until they were actually going into school, she was a mess. All the photos are awful since she was doing that "ugly cry" - you know the one I mean.
I would love to post more photos but a. the best ones were taken by my friend and she hasn't sent them yet and b. there are pictures of lots of other kids and I can't post them here since I don't have permission. On the plus side, my mom did get some lovely ones when she came out of school and as you can probably see, she loved it. Her teacher is the one that we were hoping she would get and she is in love. She walks around singing the songs from school and it turns out that our lovely neighbour from across the street is her lunch monitor and can keep an eye on her for us. She has been taken care by the big girls she knows from daycare and she seems to be loving the social part of school.

On the first day, they all got a crown and they got to add stickers - Pk used princess stickers, which just made the day all the more perfect for her. On the second day, she got a birthday crown (since her birthday was the week before - that's another post!) and her teacher made a fuss over her. She is in love with school and we couldn't be happier.

I have to say that it has been interesting to work out my feelings about school. Before she went, I had a lot of worries and trying to get logistics worked out. Interestingly, the first day, when everyone said I would be a crying mess, I was in pretty good shape (other than for a bit in the afternoon when I got rather emotional about the fact that I hadn't been able to take her myself). I liked school as a kid and I am really excited for Pk. I think she is going to be really happy being with her friends, singing songs, reading stories and working. I see school as a really good opportunity for her - I suppose that is easier for me given that we live in a great school district and her teacher is a friend of mine who I have seen in action. She even had homework this weekend and we had fun sitting down to do it (and, I might add now, SHE did it, not me - I am NOT going to be that mother). Tonight, I did her Scholastic order and getting her books was fun!

So far, we are all enjoying the school experience... I hope that keeps happening!