First Week of Kindergarten!

Gosh, wasn't Joseph just born like yesterday?!?  How is he a full blown big kid kindergartner now?!?  I am still in disbelief and this whole transition is definitely bittersweet...but, we are SO proud of him and also so excited for what's to come (although definitely a huge part of me wants to keep him home with me all day still and longs for him to stay little forever-definitely the first week of kindergarten and pregnancy hormones talking!!)  

Joseph is attending Westwood Elementary, part of the distinguished Poway Unified School District, which if we end up staying in the same area he will attend the same middle and high school that I attended-definitely surreal!  

On Sunday, August 14th we received an automated phone call from his teacher...Mrs. Clark!!  I got tears in my eyes listening to the message.  Mrs. Clark (Stacey) is the sister in law of Michelle, one of my best friend's from high school! Small world and we are so thankful that Joseph is placed in her class!  Not only have other parents raved about her but it is also so nice for him (and myself!) to know that a familiar face will be taking care of him this first year.  Joseph has become buddies with her son who is also in Kindergarten-they have played a few times together in the past year when we have gotten together with Michelle while she is visiting her family here and Joseph has told me that they have been playing on the playground every day so that is great!

On Monday, August 15th we had his Kindergarten orientation where we all got to go into the classroom, meet the teacher and calm everyone's first day of school jitters.  Rich and I were both able to attend which was really nice and we had fun doing the classroom scavenger hunt with Joseph as he discovered different parts from his classroom.  I was definitely teary eyed walking into the classroom and seeing his desk with the nametag on it...just as Rich started to ask me if I was going to cry he caught me with tears welling up in my eyes but then I was ok!  He did great and jumped right into every one of the activities that Mrs. Clark had set up for them and did a great job of listening to the story that she read to them.  

 Listening to  Mrs. Clark read "Kindergarten Rocks" at the orientation.

Excited to be a Westwood Roadrunner!!

Mrs. Clark sent them home with a letter to open that night before bed and here it is...such a great idea!  Joseph totally got into it and sprinkled the glitter under his pillow and the next morning said that it helped him sleep!  I put the glitter back into the bag the following day but he has slept with the bag of glitter under the pillow all week long! 

 Tuesday, August 16th was the big first day!!  He woke up a little before 6:30, came down dressed and was so excited "I'm going to to kindergarten today!"  When Ella woke up, he reminded her that today was his first day of kindergarten, too!!
School starts at 7:55 with the gates opening at 7:40 so we left a little after 7:30 since I wasn't sure what parking was going to be like.  We are about a 1/2 mile from school but it is uphill and not really bike friendly so until we get it all figured out we are going to drive and park close to school and then walk him in-honestly, I was kind of dreading it-ya know, loading everyone up in the car to drive 1 minute and then load everyone out, but so far it really has worked out great.  I guess I feel like that since we have been spending about 20 minutes of time at school-by the time we walk in, get him to his line, walk back out-that it doesn't feel like such a waste of a drive.  Joseph has asked to ride his scooter so we may try that next week or we may wait until after the baby comes and once we get into more of a groove with Ella going to school, too, but for now this is working!

 Ella genuinely seemed really happy and excited for him!

 Just for the first day we were able to walk them into their classrooms.  Normally we can walk them into the playground and then can stay with them by their lines on the blacktop but can not go through the gates to the classrooms so it was nice to be able to walk to the room on the first day.  He hung up his backpack and then we walked in to the room.  The desks were covered with butcher paper to color on so at first he was a little confused since he couldn't find his name but once we figured out where it was, he was all good and I barely even got a good-bye.   I was able to control the tears today but am just SO proud of him!!

 We picked him up at 11:40 (the district does 1/2 day for the first 6 weeks and then will move to the full day schedule of 7:55-2:00 p.m.) and he was all smiles and said he had a great day and loved kindergarten!!  He told me that he wanted to go back tomorrow so I take that as a great sign!!  He was wearing this crown so that night I made him put it back on to take a picture with it!  Julia jumped in the pictures since she didn't get in on the action in the morning since we had to wake her up (three out of the four days I've had to wake her up at 7:25 to take him!)  It is an adjustment for everyone!!

 I put this note in his lunchbox on the first day and he came home and said to me, "I got your postcard and I liked it" so that has made me continue sending him with a little note each day. I wasn't planning on doing so but every day he has said something about it so figure I'll keep it up until he tells me to stop...
Thankfully the yogurt that I sent didn't explode all over the note!! Total rookie kindergarten mom fail!  I sent him with a frozen squeeze yogurt and he can't quite open them by himself so I cut it open and covered the top with aluminum foil but that didn't hold once it started to melt so there was yogurt all over his lunchbox!!  Oops!  Thankfully it didn't affect any of his food either but I don't think I'll be sending those anymore!

Off again!!  Second day of school!  Julia actually cried on the second and third  day of school when dropping him off-she started crying and saying "Butter, butter!"  (Brother, brother!) 

Joseph continued to be excited about school all week long, let's hope his enthusiasm continues all year long!!  He was definitely tired in the afternoon and was in bed earlier every night than the night before but up early in the mornings and excited to go back!  On Friday the school has a Friday Flag assembly outside that families are invited to stay for so the girls and I stayed to watch-they make announcements, do the pledge as a school, sing songs, and then do some sort of activity.  It was really cute and Joseph loved it.  I talked with Mrs. Clark on Friday afternoon and she told me that Joseph is just loving school.  She said that he has become friends with a lot of classmates already and is just really enjoying himself.  He has been talking all week about two boys so I told her that I knew he was feeling comfortable and like he had some buddies already.   He came home on Friday with a toy from the treasure chest for good behavior so I'd say the first week was definitely a success!!  We are looking forward to a great year-I'm sure it will come with its ups and downs but we are very thankful that it all has started out so smoothly!