My year always starts in late August/early September. I spent two years in the real world trying to operate with a year that starts in January. I was miserable. I had previously spent my entire life working on a school year. It worked for me. I saw no reason to change. So I was very happy when I returned to the safety of operating in school years. I plan to stay on this schedule for a long time.
That being said, today is the first day of a new year. For the first time ever, the school year is no longer all about me. It doesn't start on my first day of class as either student, teacher, or administrator. The torch has been passed down, and the new year really begins on the petite princess's first day of preschool.
Getting ready for preschool has been an adventure. It started with clothes shopping. I've never really cared how I dressed any of the kids, but suddenly I panicked. I didn't want R to be The Weird Kid at school, so we went shopping. But she's so teeny! At 3, she is just starting to wear size 24 months/2T clothes. This didn't seem like a problem until we went school clothes shopping. Shirts in those sizes sometimes still have snaps at the neck. Snaps at the neck are for babies! Not to mention have the shirts we found were onesies, and those just don't work for potty training kids. And everything in the stores is long sleeve. Do the stores not know that our high temperatures are in the 70s and 80s most days until Christmas? Do they want her to roast? She is too young to suffer in the name of fashion! Finding pants that fit was no easy task either. Pants in her size are designed for big ol' diaper-covered bums. But R wears pull-ups or panties. Saggy butt has never been a very fashionable look. Thank goodness for the return of leggings!
R has a study guide for every occasion, and she read and reread Elmo Goes to School in an effort to get ready for today. Unfortunately, last Friday we found out that at her school backpacks are banned and the kids are required to use tote bags (so that all ages can get stuff out and put it in by themselves). She was not happy about that change. At all. Not only does Elmo have a backpack, but she does too, and she packed hers for school weeks ago. But, last Friday she and I went shopping and get her a tote bag, some Strawberry Shortcake fabric, and lots of pink puffy paint. On Sunday she went crazy decorating her new bag which she proudly carried today. She even requested that I write her name "the real way" using both upper and lower case letters, rather than in all capitals.
There were a couple of other deviations from the book that threw her. One was the lack of school busses. She REALLY wants to ride a bus to school. We talked about her school not having enough kids for busses. She was also devastated that she was going to have two teachers in her room. Elmo only has one. She was really hung up on this. Who knew it would be so dramatic? But we discussed "same" and "different" and I think she was okay with it.
Dropping R off at school this morning was almost non-eventful. Because she is not yet fully potty trained, and because she isn't the most social, we switched her to the two-year-old class which is a teensy class with 4 students. We were able to meet 2 of the other kids from her class at the open house last Friday. They arrived at school the same time we did this morning. When they got to their classroom, each found something to do and were completely engrossed in their activities. Not one of them even cared about saying goodbye to their parents.
I haven't gotten all the details yet, but it must've been a good first morning at school. From what I hear, one girl cried (probably the fourth child who hadn't been there yet). For snack they had bananas, the one food on earth R doesn't eat, and Goldfish crackers, which thankfully she loves. She also managed to hit the little boy in her class during dodge ball. (Thankfully she got her father's athletic abilties and not mine.) It sounds like a successful day and a great start to a new year.
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