Away we go

Today we saw Anna off to kindergarten. True to form, Anna didn't blink. She was ready, in fact, I think Anna had begun to wonder exactly what all the fuss was about. Mike and I carefully prepared her school bag and helped her finish her ABC book the night before (all the kids wrote words for each of the alphabet letters over the summer). We lugged her giant school supply bag ourselves and set out calmly for the first walk to school.

The biggest discussion was really about what to wear. Despite the purchase of this first day outfit, she had to weigh several options before settling on her original clothing choice. She asked me to put her hair up in a bun like Cinderella, but I was able to talk her out of that at the last minute (her hair isn't long enough and the number of bobby pins it would take for something like that just didn't seem like a good idea). 

All the children waited outside the door, which gave Anna a chance to see several familiar faces. Of the twenty kids in her class, I think she knows eight of them already. Her class only lasted one hour because the first day is shortened. But tomorrow will be her first real class. 

If you're wondering whether I cried, well, believe it or not, I didn't cry. Rather than dropping your child off and walking home, the teacher asked us to stay for a presentation in the library about the Jolly Phonics program. So we got to go into her classroom and find her seat and then wander a couple of doors down for about 45 minutes and then wander right back. It didn't have quite the drama of the "FIRST DAY" that I hear so many people talk about. I didn't see a single parent cry, come to think of it. We were literally just a few yards away. 



When we asked her how everything went, she was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. How was it??? Good. Did she get to talk to any of her friends??? Not really. It was too short.  Did she have fun??? Um, yeah.  Did you learn anything??? We did a project about a tree.

So all in all, it was a smooth day. Well, except for the fact that we woke up to a basement full of water from last night's rain storm and had to rip up a bunch of carpet. But that's another story. A looong and frustrating one. For now, we're just grateful that we all made it through today emotionally intact and with a happy kindergartener.