Aidan’s 1st Day of School

Well, my little boy started kindergarten today… and despite my initial thought that I would be a sobbing mess, we both actually handled everything quite well.

Luke and I both went to drop him off after getting up at 6am to make sure everything went smoothly. Having met the teacher and explored the classroom last week, Aidan seemed comfortable with everything. We actually ran into his pal Devin in the parking lot and walked in together, so I think that made him a little more at ease. I’m glad one or two of his friends from Bright Horizons will be there with him for the transition.

The teacher, Ms. Caple, seems nice enough. However, with 21 kids in the class it’s obvious she doesn’t have time to really chat. And, I guess I was kind of used to being able to talk with his teachers at Bright Horizons. In fact, I chatted with them so much that I consider them friends that I’ll miss!

Anyway, picking Aidan up did turn into a total mess. Skye and I were going to meet him at his class but soon discovered the school is locked up until 2:05pm. We were told by the front office to go back to our car and wait in line. So, that put us in a twenty-five minute car jam waiting for kids to be dismissed and loaded up. I couldn’t help but think about all of the needless carbon emissions occurring as all those cars sat there idle. And, Skye wasn’t very happy either! In fact, she decided to scream the whole time as a reminder that she should be at home napping and eating. We obviously need to work out some kind of schedule that works for everyone, but I just can’t figure out what that’s going to be yet!

When asked how his first day was, Aidan was kind of quiet. His teacher had advised me that he was “emotional”, but couldn’t provide any details. She was wrapped up in getting all of the other kids matched up with their cars, which I totally understand. The whole dismissal process was total chaos!

As the day progressed, I did manage to get some details from Aidan but nothing too spectacular. They went to the cafeteria, played on the playground and listened to songs. He told me today was “just an orientation” and that ”real school would start tomorrow”.

So as we wind down this evening, I’m already thinking about how early we’ll be getting up tomorrow to do it all again. I think I agree with Aidan when I say that we miss Bright Horizons and that growing up is hard to do!