First Day of Kindergarten

The first day of Kindergarten fell perfectly on a Thursday so that Rhett already had the day off to take Cam to school. I had already been teaching for a week so I was going to miss all the newness. Cam usually wakes up in a bad mood (complete opposite of Bren, btw, who sits straight up the second I walk into the room so happy to see me and starts handing me his blankie and his bear and his cars pillow as part of his traveling entourage for carrying him into the other room and getting ready for the day) but he was actually excited this first morning of kindergarten and got right out of bed .

They dropped Brenden off at daycare and came to school.

I insisted that Rhett take a full travelogue of pictures from beginning to end and these are some that he shot.

Giving the thumbs up that he was excited and would be the coolest kid in kindergarten.

Stopping at my trailer for a second to say hi.

Cam sitting in his "desk."

Trying out new things.

With his teacher, Miss Sorenson.

I was nerdily a little disappointed that there was no homework that first night, but they did start sending stuff home the next Tuesday at Back to School Night. Cam is in the AM class and is transported to daycare where Bren is for the whole day until I get off work. I knew Cam had had a great first day because he actually told me in detail all about it. He usually will say, "I'm not going to tell you!" in response to me asking him about how his day went or what he did. What a way to respond, huh?

But kindergarten was different. And new. And I knew it was great when I met him out at the bus during my lunchtime and he ran right past me, more excited to experience the bus than to say hi to me. I practically had to tackle him to give him a hug on his way.

Later on the drive home from daycare, he told me that they all sat on the rug and would say their name if the bumblebee hat touched their head. Then they sang a song about school and read the book the Kissing Hand, which ironically I had mentioned to Cam the day he started his new daycare a week before. He was really nervous about the new daycare so I kissed his hand a few times and told him he would always have my kisses to hold in his hand if he ever got nervous or was missing me. That's basically what the book is about but he was so amazed that they had read that book in kindergarten and I had talked about it the week before. It was like magic!

He also told me that they got to go to recess ("SO FUN!") and did some work at their desk. And when it was time to go, Miss Sorenson gave them all "kissies" he told me. I figured he meant the chocolate kisses but I double checked. (It was the chocolate ones). And he said, "Mom, you know why she gave us those? Because she LOVES US!" His eyes lit up at the thought of this and I have to admit that I got a little lump in my throat seeing how excited he was to know his teacher loved him but mostly because I was excited to know that his teacher loved him.

School is so great. We have already started doing homework and getting into a better routine and I'm happy to announce that 8 days later, he still enjoys going.

Even though, he did have a meltdown a few days ago when recess was over and couldn't get down off the jungle gym in time to run inside with the rest of his class. I peeked in on him unknowingly about 30 seconds after this had happened as I was walking my class back out to the trailer and he saw me peeking and came running. He wouldn't let me go and kept saying not to leave him and he wanted to go home with me but I kissed him a million times and Miss Sorenson pried him away and his day got better.

It's fun having him at the same school and seeing him so excited for new things.

I think school is so fun and I'm glad he thinks so too.

So far.