The First Week of School

The girls started school a week ago, and they were both very excited.

Megan's teacher is named Mrs. McKeith, and this is her third year teaching at Horizon.  Megan says that she is very nice and that she likes her teacher a lot.  Megan was excited to start kindergarten until I tried to leave her in the library with the rest of the kindergartners on the first day.  She told me that she almost cried, but that she didn't actually cry, but that a lot of kids did.  At the start of the summer, she had told me that I didn't need to walk her into school at all, but now she has changed her mind and wants me to walk her in for a few more weeks.  She comes home from school every day saying that she had a great day, but that she doesn't want to tell me anything until dinnertime, so that she doesn't have to repeat herself.  She knows four of the kids in her class pretty well, but she has also been talking about making friends with three new girls in her class.  She has been whinier than normal at home in the evenings, so I think that she is tired after a full long day at school.  She has been watching a tv show to relax right after school is out.

Her teacher sent this note and photo home after the first day.  In the photo below, Megan is sitting with the principal, Mr. Briggs, and the new assistant principal.  When I asked Megan if she knew who the woman was, she said she had no idea, but she did know the principal.

Megan colored this picture of our family on her second day of school.  She made sure to get everyone's eye color right, and she has started adding noses to her smiley faces. 

I thought it was very nice that her teacher sent a personalized note home to all of her students after the first week.

 

Amelia was counting down the days until school started, and she was thrilled to go to school on the first day.  As soon as we got in the doors, she gave me a quick hug and kiss and ran off to join the rest of her class in the cafeteria.  She has a teacher named Mrs. Lutz (pronounced Loots) who is new to the school this year.  She says Mrs. Lutz is very nice.  She only knows a few kids in her class this year, but one is a girl that she was friends with in kindergarten, so I'm hoping that they will resume their friendship.  Amelia told me last night that she has been trying to be extra friendly to the new girl who moved to town this summer from Florida, but that the new girl keeps rejecting Amelia's offers of friendship.  It is making her very sad, so we'll see how this next week goes.  Amelia has been more sad and sensitive than normal after school this first week, so I suspect that she is having a hard time getting used to the long school days, too.  She had an epic meltdown on Tuesday after a very unlucky game of Chutes & Ladders, and ended up going to bed at 6:30 that night. 

Amelia wrote out a nametag for her desk the first day of school that lists some things that she likes or that describe her:

 And the class had to write a letter home to their families telling them about the first week of school:

Nathaniel and I have done a lot of errands this week, it is much nicer to run errands with one child than with three.  I am still trying to figure out what time I need to put him down for a nap so that I don't have to wake him up at 2:45 to go pick up the girls.  Even when I put him down at 11:45 on Friday, I still had to wake him up!  I thought I would get a photo of his really curly hair before I take him to get it cut in the coming weeks.

And what would a photo session be without trying to eat your foot?