First Day of School, Part 1

Wait...do you hear that?

That sound of....nothing.

Quiet. Still. Quiet. A quite foreign sound 'round here.

Today is the first day of school. Boo is in 1st year here, and it is his first year of going all day. School starts at 8:55, and I (think) I pick him up at 3:15. (Need to check that shortly.)

Pea is in preschool. She, too, gets dropped of by 8:55 or so, and stays until 1pm - yes she stays for lunch! Five. Days. A. Week.

At the moment, I am sitting on my sofa, hot mug of tea and a plate of Welsh cakes on the coffee table, heart still pounding slightly from the mad rushing about the school.

You see, Pea, who absolutely loved preschool back in Chicago, stated firmly last night that she did NOT want to go to school, and she definitely did NOT want to eat lunch there. (And this is a girl who very clearly knows what she wants, most of the time.) The original intent was to send her from 9-11, and then when she adjusted, let her stay until 1pm. However, the teachers said that most children stayed for lunch (sorry, dinner), and suggested we try having her stay until 1 straight out, and if she really had issues, shorten it after the first week.

So today, all dressed in her new first-day-of-school clothes, she shyly wandered into the main room, with a sly smile on her face as she took in all the children and the toys. A helper took her by the hand, and I skedaddled. None of that hanging around for me - I learned that back at Little Angels!

Boo was patiently waiting outside Pea's classroom for me, and I led him into his room, where they were already sitting for circle time. He had an odd look on his face, which I'm hoping was just nerves. He told me that he might be shy the first day, and we had told him that this was jut fine - he makes friends easily, just to be himself. I have to add, he was pretty proud of his new uniform. I was a bit surprised about that, but to be honest, being dressed like everyone else had to be a bit of relief on the first day.

The teaching assistant showed him his hook in the cloakroom (where he is "Sam B", as there is also a "Sam H" in his class), and where to store his water bottle, and collected his book bag. A kiss on the head in the cloakroom (so as not to embarrass him in front of his new classmates) and off I dash to finish MY school errands.

I had to drop paperwork with the secretary, buy some little envelopes for lunch money (1 penny each), then drop lunch money in the kitchen - at which point my ability to do math completely escaped me, and then seeing both dinner money and milk money spots on the envelope, wondered if they had forgotten to tell me about milk money. (I'll find out today I suppose).

By then, the children had started to gather in the main area for morning assembly, so I had to dash around the school, back thru the gate (as the preschool teacher was caught up with another mum, and I needed to get Boo settled in his class so couldn't wait longer) and I hadn't told the teachers that Pea WAS indeed staying for dinner!!! THEN I needed to see Boo's teacher, as I needed to pay for his daily fruit at snack time and the 50 P that I owed for cookery for the term.

Honestly, I think I was more worked up trying to make sure I had everything straight so there was no issues for them with snacks or meals for the day than they were with starting school!

So I'm looking forward to collecting Miss Pea at 1:00 and learning about how her day went. I went to bed last night, praying over and over again for her to have a good first day, and to enjoy it. I hope my prayers were heard.

And when we collect Boo at 3:15 (ish), I'm walking them both into town, to Shepherd's for first-day-of school ice cream cones to celebrate! I'll report on how the day went later...