We’re starting our fourth week of Kindergarten and I’m feeling like we’re in a good rhythm. With my new job, our morning routine is more relaxed and we basically gained thirty minutes. That means the people in our house who need more sleep {me + children}, get a little extra each day and none of us are as rushed as we used to be. We still have a few areas of improvement – I need to find my new workout groove and Quinten needs to work on his focus while getting himself in the carseat. {Have you seen the meme about being late because a toddler had to buckle himself in? That’s my life.}
While it’s only a month in, we’ve already learned a lot about having a kindergartener.
- Recess. Turns out our very first year of school is also the year when the answer to every question is “good,” “nothing,” and “recess.” What we’ve gathered is that recess is spent playing superheros with his buddies. His favorite parts of the day are playing with his friends who aren’t in his class. Luckily, recess happens. Before school started, we had a mini-meltdown because not all the boys were in his class and he was VERY concerned that the other classes would have Batman toys and his wouldn’t. So, recess. With superhero friends. Whew.
- They don’t let kindergarteners take home library books the first two weeks. It turns out, week three is the magic number. Every week he told me the next week he would get to take a book home. I hope I always remember the sheer excitement and look in his eyes after his first media day when he told me his school had a LIBRARY! And he got to pick out his own book to look at so he picked a Star Wars book. 🙂
- One of the areas he’s grown the most in lately is dealing with unexpected or unknown things. We don’t always know the details of his day and he’s been ok with us telling him that. I tell him to see what it’s like that day and tell me when we get home. He accepts it really easily and has a good time telling me about it later. And then he knows for next time! I was nervous about him not dealing well with the unknown, but he’s been doing a really good job of adapting.
- This summer I panicked about how he would know how to get food. Thankfully, I was still logical in my thinking and decided that he would have to eat school lunch for a while until it became a routine for him. Some days I look at the food and know he probably won’t like it or I wouldn’t even like it, but he’s been a champ and talks about eating some of everything he gets. And he alternates between white, chocolate, and strawberry milk during lunch. He obviously thinks that’s pretty cool!
- He knows where he’s supposed to go! On his second day, when I was worried about us not being with him, he knew exactly where he was supposed to go at drop off. And was rather disappointed that he and his two friends got a special car ride to school for the first week. He wanted to be with the big kids in the van with the daycare logo on it. It wasn’t enough that he got picked up in it, he wanted dropped off. Well, now he’s officially in the van and I kind of wish they had a dashboard camera because I’m sure that van is ridiculous with a bunch of elementary kids in there!
- Emotions are heightened. In general, we try not to make a big deal about crying. In our house, it’s ok if boys cry and we never make it a big deal. HOWEVER! We do spend a lot of time asking little boys to take a deep breath and talk about what is wrong. Not that crying is bad, but we can’t help if we don’t know what is going on. {Side note, kids cry a lot.} Since the beginning of August, right after he turned six, we’ve noticed a lot more outbursts when something doesn’t go his way.
- It’s hard to keep up with all the things going on in school! Not that I want last minute information, but it’s hard when we get a bunch of stuff that all has different due dates. We don’t have a good organization / office situation at home so it makes it a little more difficult to stay up on everything happening. Thankfully we get reminder texts and stickers that come home on the kids the day before something happens.
It’s still weird talking about having a kindergartener, but he’s rocking it and we’re all figuring it out as we go.
