Smiley's 1st Day of School! 3-10-08

At quarter to noon I left work and met Lisa and Smiley at his new school. He'd just woken up from a nap when he got  there and therefore didn't look too happy in this shot.

He seemed a little apprehensive when he saw all the big kids on the playground, but as his Mom said, he'd probably have jumped the fence to join them if we'd given him the chance.

Armed with his Spongebob backpack packed with diapers, a pair of new shoes from my Mom, and a sharp sweater vest he was ready to go!

The classroom is on the lower level, a cozy little room where about 8 kids gather to do intensive speech related activites. Then, for an hour or so, they move over to join the K4 kids for storytime and the usual kindergarten curriculum.

We met his teacher, Ms. Heidi, and he seemed fascinated by the other kids, spending a long time watching in awe as they hung up their coats in their cubby holes. After a few minutes it was time to leave, and the teacher asked Smiley to have a seat around the table.

Uh-uh. Wasn't having it. He let out a squeal and swatted her hand away. As we were walking out the door he was crying at the top of his lungs, reaching out for Lisa and yelling 'momma momma momma'.

The girls couldn't have cared LESS about our leaving them on the first day of school, and they were no older than he is now.

It genuinely freaked me out for the rest of the day, as if I wasn't wistful enough over having my only son start school. Thankfully the report from the ride home after school was positive. He cried only for a minute or two, was all smiles as he left the school, and was very animated and noisy on the way home.

Later, when I asked him if he liked it, he nodded enthusiastically.

Here's Lisa's emailed report from Day Two:

drop off went smoothly ....

 

talked to the other 2 parents that do the drop off thing [note: we turned down bussing] ...

 

one man said his son only started 2 weeks ago.....and that he says a lot more then when he started.

 

i said Smiley spent 2 hrs w/ miss heidi and said a lot of new sounds just on the car ride home....

 

another lady said her daughter finally just started calling her momma for the first time about 3 weeks ago....

 

no crying.....lined up really good with the kids, waved goodbye w/ his pack on his back like a little man but so cute and cuddly, lol...

 

....only 4 kids (that includes ours) get dropped off....

 

sooooo.....very promissing...very nice kids/parents....

 

She went on to note a fistfight she saw on the playground that seemed to go unnoticed, but I'm betting that's just a fluke; it can certainly happen anywhere and the school gets rave reviews.

 

So little Smiley is now in school and even has a zoo fieldtrip coming up! What a big week for him!

 

Tags: Smiley, school