Ethan's First Day of Kindergarten

Ethan's first day of kindergarten was such a busy day that I haven't really sat down to write about it until now. He started on July 23rd. Yes, it's early. He is in a year-round school. It will be a little bit harder because he has to go to school before everyone else, but this year he has PM kindergarten and so he is gone during the hottest part of the day and that's nice.


Anyway, he was so excited the first day. He was thrilled to finally be able to go on the bus all by himself. We were informed that it would pick him up in front of our house (which it did) and drop him at the school before class began (it did not). I went to the school to meet him there and begin the kindergarten orientation with the rest of the parents. As I looked around the classroom, I noticed that I was the only parent without a child and it was 15 minutes past starting time. His teacher suggested I look on the playground, but no Ethan. Finally, after a few minutes of panic (because I was then locked out of his classroom), I walked around to the front of the school to find one other lady standing there. She said her child wasn't here yet either. At this point, the principal came out and asked us what we were doing. I wanted to answer that we were standing in 100 degree heat for our health, but I politely explained that our kindergarters had not arrived yet. He looked at us in disbelief and said, "Well, they would be 20 minutes late!" We agreed and suggested that he call to ask where the bus with our children was. He came out apologizing profusely and told us that ETA was 8 minutes. So, Ethan was 30 minutes late to his first day of school and I missed most of the orientation.

The bright spot was that a little boy he knew from church happened to be assigned to sit right next to him and we didn't even know they were in the same class. They are good friends and will become even better friends now. What a plesant surprise and small blessing that helped us on his first day of school!

With Ethan off to school, I went to pick Katie up from my neighbor and enjoy some quiet before I went to get him from the bus stop. I imagine I had many of the thoughts first time moms have when their first child is at school for the first time. "The house is so quiet." "The house feels half empty." "Those five years went faster than I thought." "Is he ready for this?" "Will he be ok?"...."How much can I get done before he comes home?" :) Yes, I went through it all and then grabbed my camera an hour later to get a glimpse of him coming home triumphantly from his first day at school. But his bus was 30 minutes late (at this point Ethan had ridden the bus for 2.5 hours for a 3 hour school day), and as I raised the camera to take his picture coming off hte bus, I noticed red all over his brand new white polo. Yes, a bloody nose on the way home. I guess a little boy had knocked him with a bookbag and Ethan's nose started up. He's always gotten them easily, so it wasn't surprising, but definitely made for an eventful end to a big day.

All in all, he wanted to go back and the bus times are getting shorter. He had a lot of fun his first full week and came home everyday with a stamp on his hand for good behavior. Let's hope that keeps coming!

*Cute Back to School Brag Book Pages by Ahhh Scrap