Monday, August 25, 2014

The First Day of School

Today was the long awaited first day of school for Our Little Princesses. Ezra started kindergarten and June started a new day school where she's in the Pre-K3 group. They were both very excited. 

Here's Ezra this morning at home and then in her classroom.

And here is June all ready to go to her new school.

Katy said that they both did great and didn't have problems with being in a new place.

Years ago, when Katy started kindergarten, her transition was not smooth. I did all the things I thought I needed to do. I took a day off of work and took her to the school for a tour and to meet the principal and her teacher. She had been in day care for three years already, so I thought this would not be a big deal. I was wrong. She really, really hated going to kindergarten and it did get better, but she never really got comfortable at that school. Thank God, the next year our neighborhood was assigned to a different school that she liked a lot better.

I was delighted to hear that Ezra's new school really has a good plan to help ease the way for kindergartners. On the Friday afternoon before school starts they held an open house. The parents and students got to see the classroom and meet the teacher. Then on Saturday morning, especially for the kindergarten, they had a play date on the playground at the school. Each student got a color-coded name tag. The color of their nametag identified the students who will be in each class. They played together and had bottled water and popsicles for a couple of hours, basically just getting to know each other. The parents came too, so it was also an opportunity for the parents to meet each other and visit for a while. I think it's an absolutely brilliant idea.

We're going to Skype with the girls in a few minutes, I can't wait to hear about their day. But here's a preliminary report. The first picture was tagged "5 minutes after I picked her up." The second picture came a little later.

It looks like the day started good and ended great with a little nap in between. It doesn't get any better than that.

Special thanks to Katy and Travis for snapping the photos and sending them to Grams.