First day of kindergarten

It went pretty well, all things considered.

On Friday morning he cried and cried for a good 45 minutes straight, repeating over and over again that he didn't want to go to kindergarten. As he cried all I could think was, "How on earth are we going to get him on the school bus?"

After he ate some breakfast he settled down. He even helped me pack a snack to bring to school. When I gave him the 5-minute warning about leaving to catch the bus he had a mini-meltdown. But as soon as his shoes were on his attitude changed. It's like he had accepted his fate and figured he might as well embrace it. We arrived at the bus stop well ahead of time (video to follow). And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. The bus didn't show so we rushed him to school in our car. What a let down!

We hung out with him on the playground for a good 20 minutes to help him acclimatize. He was too nervous to interact with the other children and, although he was intrigued by all of the cool playground equipment, he just stayed on the sidelines. Finally we were able to settle him into the sand box with two other little boys. There was a pretty cool steamroller there that he simply couldn't resist. Once he was playing comfortably, we decided it was time to go. This idea wasn't so cool with the little guy. He clung to my leg and begged for us to stay. The teacher (bless her heart) came over to give us a hand. She said, "It's time to say goodbye to mommy and daddy. You will be together at the end of the day, just like every other day."

After a quick goodbye hug and kiss we walk out the gate. The look on his face just about killed me. He looked so frightened. So abandoned. So lonely. Did I mention he is still only 3 years old?

When we rounded the corner I burst into tears. And I burst into tears again when we drove by the school yard and I saw him standing alone against a wall looking all sad and scared.

Hubby dropped me at work and then drove back to the school later to spy on the little guy boarding the bus for nursery school. One glance at the little guy told him that things had gone just fine. He boarded the bus with a big smile on his face and then made his way to the very back of the bus. Hubby followed the bus and observed him standing up from time to time to peer out the back window. When he arrived at nursery school he hopped off the bus and ran excitedly into the playground to play with his friends.

The teacher called me at work that afternoon and gave me a recap of his day. He did very well, except for one small incident. When the French teacher (a new stranger) came in to give a lesson, he got up and left the group. The teacher lost sight of him momentarily and then quickly set off to find him. He was sitting in front of his cubby hole, holding his special blanket (tee-tee). "Do you need a little self time?" she asked and he nodded yes. After a minute he put his blanket back in the bag and rejoined the group.

When I asked him about his day, he was absolutely glowing. He did a craft, sang some songs, played with a castle. I asked him what the best part of the morning was and he said, "I liked having snack time." (No big surprise there!). When I asked him what he thought of his teacher he said, "She's really nice Mom!"

So far so good. Let's just hope the bus shows up tomorrow!