The Third Day of Kindergarten

Fans, it was better.  Not long after Joe arrived at Kid's Place this morning, another boy--named Miles as it turns out--also in Joe's class arrived.  (We could tell because his dog tags, if you will, were also strung around his neck with aqua blue string.)  They said hello as best as two five-year-old boys on their third day of kindergarten surrounded by two teachers and two parents can.  When Julie left, they were sitting across from each other, Miles reading a magazine from home and Joe with the Spiderman puzzle that had been thrust into his hands.  When Julie arrived to pick Joe up, they were sitting next to each other at  a table with pretty much every other boy in the room staring at a video game that two of them were playing.  It was clear how the whole taking turns thing worked; doubtful that it was voluntary.  Anyway, they were sitting together.  When Julie asked Joe if he wanted to hang around a little longer or go home though, he said go home and got up to leave.  Julie suggested saying goodbye to Miles, and Joe did, but too softly for Miles to hear.  So Julie suggested he say it a little louder maybe.  And Joe practically shouted right into Miles' ear, "BYE MILES!"

Well anyway.  They were sitting together.

Julie got an impromptu tour of Joe's room when she asked Joe where a water fountain was and it turned out to be in Joe's classroom.  "It's on the right [of the sink]," Joe told her.  She saw his table, and learned the names of all the kids at it.  She also saw the mailboxes, where Joe proceeded to read the names of all the kids in the class, including one beginning with a silent T: "The T is silent," Joe informed Julie, as his put his thumb over the T.

On the walk home, Joe asked Julie if Graham had asked the same or different kid to slide down the slide.  (Julie had shared with Joe that Graham had had a similar experience on his second day of school as Joe had had with Aaron.  Joe naturally assumed that Graham had the same plan.  Of course.  Graham is a great guy so for sure he had the same plan.)

Julie said that she didn't know because she and Ms. Sara hadn't talked since this morning, but that they had agreed to check in later so Julie said she would ask.*  That was Julie's opening to ask Joe, "Did you ask the same kid or a different kid?"  Joe said, "Same kid," and. . .wait for it. . ."He said yes."  Can you believe how brave Our Hero was?!  Same kid!  Really?!  And, thank God, Aaron might be o-kay after all.  Maybe.  Joe later allowed that he also played with Karlis.  (Karlis sits at his table, not Brandon as it turns out.)

So here we are on the other side of the first week, short though it was.  We made it.  He made it.

*Graham had a better third day, too.

Hard Things

Well Fans, already, on the second day of kindergarten, Joe has faced one of those textbook childhood challenges: he asked a boy (I'm-older-Aaron, incidentally) if Aaron wanted to play with him at recess, and Aaron said no.  There's not much about that that you can say is good except well, the first time that's happened is over.  (You can think, as Julie did, "What a little s#%$."  But you can't say that.)

But, we've got a plan, Fans, we've got a plan.  Because while it's good to let a teacher know some things, part of getting older and going to school is learning what problems you might be able to solve on your own.  So, tomorrow, Joe is going to do two things at recess:

1.  He's going to ask someone in his class if they want to go down the slide and if that someone says yes, then they'll go off to the slide.  But if that someone says no, then Joe will say, "O-kay.  See you later!" and head off to the slide.  See?  He'll have places to go, things to do, so whatever if you don't want to slide down the slide, Someone.  But hopefully Someone will say "Yes!  Let's go!"

2.  He's going to figure out what his favorite thing is to do on the play ground.  He may have, admittedly, already figured this out since it's now one of our go-to playgrounds.  But, again, he'll have something to do when he's dropped into one of those situations where it's a big mass of squirming, shrieking bodies that he finds overwhelming.

It is worth mentioning that Our Hero negotiated this situation at recess after making his way through two hours of before-care at Kid's Place, which was also new to him.  Julie left him reading two books we put in his backpack, just for his time at Kid's Place.  (We weren't sure of the lay of the land and they had said it was o-kay to bring books or magazines.)  When we arrived, there were about 10 of the 30 or so kids that one of the supervisors, Ms. Gina, said would be there total (about 13 kindergartners today, but all the numbers can vary).  Gina told Julie this afternoon that Joe read those books for a while and then found a Spiderman puzzle which he worked on for a long time.  In the afternoon, she said it's pretty chaotic with all the kids arriving after dismissal so she wasn't sure if Joe got a snack.  (He did.  He put it in his backpack "to keep it safe" because he "wasn't sure where to sit.")  She said he went outside for a bit, but she saw him looking overwhelmed so she approached him and he told her he wanted his Mommy.  Gina told him his Mommy would be there soon and took him inside and hooked him up with another puzzle.  Julie will admit that she didn't manage to fight back entirely the tears in her eyes hearing all this, but she promised Gina she wouldn't cry every day, and told her she knew it would be o-kay soon; it was just hard right now and he was our first.  Gina said her son was 21 and she remembered how hard it all could be.  So she seems like good people all the way around.

Joe did figure out how to buy milk today.  You stand in the "lunch from home line," but at its front, apparently.  He asked for help opening his applesauce.  He also remembered that one of the other boys at his table is named Brandon.  He used the bathroom (it's in his room).  He did all that, and some really hard things today.  Do you ever notice how bravery doesn't feel so great in the moment?  What's up with that?  But maybe one day soon Joe will feel what a triumph today was.

In the meantime, tomorrow is another day, and he's got a plan for it.  We are making it up as we go along, but it feels like a reasonably solid plan.

We have a plan, too: be patient, remember that today was only the second day, and to keep remembering that if you don't have anything nice to say little s#%$s, best not to say anything at all.

Birdie Flies Solo at Preschool

Today was the first day of kindergarten, but the second day that Birdie has been going to KinderCare without Joe and after two days, Julie is with Sara: the whole kindergarten scene is toughest for the little ones not going.  Our Birdie, who has cried at drop off less than a handful of times--if that-- has cried the past two mornings.  Who can blame her? Her whole little family is walking out the door without her. This morning, she and Julie struck a deal in which they hugged extra tight before Clara would go to Ms. Lindsey for a hug.  Birdie squeezed Julie with all her might and then, very stoically, heaved herself into Ms. Lindsey arms.  Julie even spied Birdie sucking briefly on two of her fingers and she's not done that in years. And Biride wants "picky uppy" a lot, too.

Meanwhile, it's just hard to be smaller with smaller everything--legs to run and pedal bikes, vocabulary to ask how kindergarten was. . .Birdie said to Joe, "You go to kindergarten today?" which was her attempt to ask how it all went down for him and he said, "I think you already know the answer to that," just like the five-year-old and big brother that he is, not really understanding her more limited vocabulary.  How proud were we to hear her ask though? As always, getting right in the mix.  So we know she'll figure out a way to stay right up in Joe's grill like only a thee-year-old little sister can.  In the meantime, extra tight squeezes for all.

What We Know After the First Day

Fans, one day in to kindergarten and here is what we know: Joe sits at a table with three other kids, one of whom is a boy; his class is smaller than his pre-K class (Our Hero figured this out on his own); he has a mailbox, not a cubby; and he forgot to buy milk at lunch. Also, Joe thinks he'll go back, but will "stick with" peanut butter and jelly at lunch (as opposed to the hot lunch--tomorrow, bean and beef burritos).  There is a newsletter on Fridays, thank goodness, as we can ask more specific questions because open-ended queries like "How was it?!" get you no where. Case in point, we learned of the mailbox because Birdie asked if Joe had a cubby.  Tomorrow we will be rolling a bit closer to the new norm: we will be dropping him off and picking him up at "Kid's Place"--the before and after care program in the cafeteria. He seems up for it. Obviously, a whole new line of questioning will be introduced.  We need to alert Birdie.

Our Hero Goes to Kindergarten

Fans, Our Hero has gone to kindergarten.  He went off like he's been doing it every day of his life.  School starts at 9:20am, and we were admonished NOT to arrive before 9am, so we headed out then from the house, and arrived at Joe's school at about 10 after.  All the kids have to wear these tags the first few weeks with their names, parent contact information, pick-up and drop-off information, and their teacher's name on them. The string from which they hang is color coded; Mrs. Dvorak's kids' tags hang, as you can see, from bright aqua blue strings.  Readers, you probably skipped right over the bit about how they are supposed to wear them for a few weeks.  These things aren't built to last, and sure enough, Joe had tugged the knot holding his string together loose by the time we were about a block from school.  That was the only incident and we were all nonplussed.  Julie and Ted had been expecting it, so the knot was back in before Joe had barely registered it was undone.

Then we were at the school's entrance.  There were quite a few parents milling about on one side of the it, across from the kindergartners lined up against the wall of the school waiting for their teacher's to come and collect them.  (Parents are instructed not to walk the kids inside, but rather to let them go in with their classes.)  Joe nearly straight away met another boy in his class whose name we learned was Aaron, who is five--and a half ("So I'm older."  Yes.  Easy buddy.)--and who also walked to school.  Joe hugged us and then went to stand by the wall where he was talking with Aaron when Mrs. Dvorak arrived.  He walked right up to her.  She looked down and said, "Hi, Joe," and then he followed her inside without a backward glance.

We couldn't have dialed up a better start.