Friday, August 21, 2009

We survived our first week!

I got through Shaye's first week of Kindergarten with only a little distress on my soul!! 2 of the 5 days were filled with "Mommy stay" or "Mommy don't leave me, Pleeeeeeeeeeease!" Thursday morning was rough. I cried a little for my baby who confessed in confidentiality during early morning pillow talk that she was scared of the newness of it all - I wept like there had been a death in the family. When a Mommy has to hear that her baby is scared of something, the Mama Bear instincts immediately flare up and you just want to protect her with every fiber of your being. I had fleeting moments of "Maybe we should have kept her in preschool for another year. I loved her teachers there and they can NEVER be duplicated" or "Are they not taking care of her needs?" Thursday morning I left the school with my heart in room K2. I sobbed as I drove away and saw her sitting on her teacher's lap (who is FUCKING awesome, btw!) with her face buried in her neck. It killed me. This morning we had a few "I'm not going to get dressed" incidents (I told her that her new friends would love to see her pj's that say 'Little Cupcake' ") and she finally gave in when I told her that we could do it "the easy way or the hard way" (one of my newest lines. LOL!) We got to school and she immediately ran off to play with her new friends, but when the teacher rang the little bell for them to come inside, she grabbed my hand and begged me to stay. Luckily, today is furlough Friday and Caroline was with us. I walked her through the line to her teacher (I will tell y'all more about this in a second) and kissed her goodbye. It had to be a quick transition.....she, of course, was just fine.

On her first day, they did this really cool little thing where the kids arrive and have about 15 min. of outside play (depending on how early you arrive) and all the parents hang out and talk. It's a really amazing vibe and most of the parents seem very friendly. The lead teacher (or guide as they are called) rang this delicate little brass bell and asked the children to line up. She then took a seat on a little kid sized chair and one by one she greeted them as they walked into the classroom (where they are guided by the other teacher/guide to their morning meeting spot). I thought that was a really great thing to do and assumed that it was a "first day of the year" type thing. Tuesday, we were running late and I dropped her off in the dropoff loop because she did so GREAT on her first day. She hopped out of the car and I watched her walk to her classroom like a pro! I felt horribly guilty for doing that to her on her 2nd day of school, but to my surprise she keeps asking to be dropped off in the loop! LOL! Wed., Thurs., and today I walked her in. On Wed. and Thurs. I actually left before they went into their classroom and just assumed the teacher would call them in and they would start their day. Well, today I was so incredibly impressed that they did the little "ring the bell, greet the teacher with a handshake, and walk into their classroom" routine. WOW!! What an incredible grace and courtesy lesson every.single.day!!!!!!!!

After one week, I have discovered that I absolutely love this school. I am already deeply in love with both her teachers (hopefully I will still be saying this in three months! LOL!) The lead teacher is really laid back with a real low key, quirky (in a good way) hippie vibe. She's very direct and carries herself with a lot of self assurance and is very friendly. The other teacher is very sweet and reminds me of Maryanne from Gilligan's Island. LOL!! She just seems like a little farm girl from Iowa. And what impresses me most of all is that they are EXTREMELY into the Montessori philosophy. I was really worried about this because of a couple of reviews I have read about the school (they have 5 campuses), but now I can see that it truly must have been either ex-maligned-employees or parents who really don't have a clue - or both.

So far so good!! Here are some pics of her first day:

Lining up to meet Ms. Susan on her first day of Montessori Kindergarten

I am really bummed that they have lightened up on their uniform code and have turned it more into a dress code now. They still have to wear solid tops and bottoms with no characters, but they can wear ANY color and can also wear stripes (no floral or plaid) and shirts with no collars. We got Shaye a lot of the Children's Place uniforms that are really casual, but SUPER cute (unlike the polyester grossness of a lot of uniforms out there!) I liked the dressy uniform look better, but oh well. At least nobody is allowed to come to school with a Dora backpack, Transformer lunchbox, Thomas shirts, or blinking princess shoes.

Greeting Ms. Susan on her first day

Pleased to meet you!

Getting reading to enter her class

I love this place!!!!!

Showing little sister around her new classroom:

Shaye giving us the tour of her new classroom

Shaye's new classroom

In front of the CUTEST map ever in her classroom!

First day of school lunch (she requested all of this! LOL!):

First day of school lunch in her new Laptop Lunchbox

Oh, and also some pics of her preschool graduation:

Shaye with her Montessori preschool diploma

2009 Montessori graduate