Thursday, September 2, 2010

First day of first grade!


We survived our first day of first grade.  I say we because let's face it, the first many years of school are definitely a closely monitored homework relationship between parent and child.  Okay, it should be.

I wished Mrs. S- a warm morning and a very hot afternoon when we arrived.  She laughed, as her open house letter told us that their class is very warm.  The school is older, so it isn't air conditioned.  I woke at 4:22 AM to the weather report stating that we would have a record breaking day and most likely it would be 95 F.  I admit that I got up, wet a clean washcloth and deposited it in the freezer, figuring that K- could cool herself off at lunch if needed.  Her summer bridge tutor suggested this when she was in Mad Science Camp this past July and it worked wonders.  I was worried that the kid would drop from heat exhaustion.

She didn't and I was obviously a bit more concerned than I needed to be.

When we arrived at school, the desk that she chose with her almighty post-it wasn't the one that she had.  (Seemed a little odd, but the desk she has is probably a better fit.)  K- reports that she likes her teacher, loves having her very own desk that she can put her stuff into and she has her own locker.  (With news reports of people sending their children to school with head lice, it made me feel a bit better to have my child's belongings in her own locker.)  She said, "Mommy, Mrs. S- yelled a lot, but she didn't yell at me."  I think that it probably seemed like Mrs. S- was yelling a lot because she uses a microphone, but K- will get used to it.  I listened to her teach every Thursday morning for about 6 months and I knew that she wasn't one to yell.  I knew that she was firm, but she didn't yell when I was within earshot.  (She didn't know I was there.)

At any rate, a new development this year is that 100 book challenge is strictly what the child reads only.  Last year, it was what the child read and what the parent read to them.  Each quarter has a reading goal of 100 steps (15 minutes per step) per child.  That figures out to 6 lines being completed each week.  That's doable and though my husband is thinking that people will be fudging that a bit, when the child is accessed for reading ability, the teacher will be able to tell who was being truthful and who wasn't.

We did walk to school today.  Hubs was able to cruise with us.  K- was up at 6:45 AM.  I have to tell you, that child's feet hit the floor and she was off!  We would love to keep that momentum.  Of course, she rode her trusty hobby horse unicorn, Sparkle, to school.  It was nice to see the smirks and waves from the folks going down the road, on their way to work. 

With that, I'm tired.  My post is disjointed because I had a rather long day. 

Smiles in my day:
-  K- doing so well on her very first day of first grade.  :)

Have a great day!

5 comments:

Rach said...

Oh this made me smile! :o) First grade is such a wonderful year!

And, on a completely maudlin front, I was really looking forward to it with Han...I'll just live it vicariously through K! :o)

Bailey's Leaf said...

And you know, I know that. It is exactly what I was thinking as K- was readying to start 1st grade.

K- will be happy to share all the sorted details!

Jamie said...

Adorable pic. Love that she's toting a LL bean. (I could probably spot those a mile away!) My youngest wore pigs on the 1st day of school, too.

Bailey's Leaf said...

It's our 4th year of using that same LL Bean backpack. (2 years of preschool. It has been her only backpack, but we've added a ton of "flare" to the back to make it different each year.) You can't beat the value. The kid can carry it forever and if it dies, they'll replace it. You figure that you pay 20.00 in the store for a backpack that will last one year. In my house, we buy to last and prefer to buy once. (I know that is your general policy for things like that, too.)

Yup! Their shoes for K- are great, too! They don't fit me well, but Hubs wears their boots for work. It is all he'll wear now.

Michelle said...

I'm glad that she had such a great first day and hope she has a wonderful year!