School Days

Some uncertainty on the first day of school

All smiles for Day 2!

I couldn't get great pictures of Lily's first days of school because I didn't want to offset her by barraging her with picture-taking on top of dealing with going to a new school. I would have updated earlier, but 1) I've been busier than expected and 2) I was exhausted last night. I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep before she did! So here's a little report from her first day of school:

I dropped her off during their breakfast-time, and, of course, she wanted me to stay. I tried to make my getaway (because I know that lingering often makes goodbyes much worse), but she ran after me. Then she wanted to leave with me. Luckily, breakfast is short and was ending, and the kids were going outside to play with the dog. Of course, she took to that right away and followed him around with all the other children doing the same. Her teacher said that she had a really good day overall and did just fine. I think that a lot of children in her class are going to school for the first time, so she has a leg-up in that arena.

Her teacher said that the only problem she had was when a class meeting was called (class meetings can be called by the children or the teachers when their is a problem in the classroom, usually rules being broken or a dispute, etc, so that the class can discuss what action should be taken). Lily apparently did not want to stop playing to deal with such trivial manners, so she had a bit of a rough time. But, the teacher said that she recovered well. On their parent questionnaire, parents are asked to list their goals for their child for this school year, and one of my goals was for her to handle frustration more appropriately when she can't do something that she really wants to do (or vice versa). So, I guess that's one that she will get to work on right from the start! One of Carl's goals for her, by the way, was to have her be ultimate fighting champion of their class.

In other news of the day, the teacher also said that she napped - hooray!!! Although you would have never known it because she was practically falling asleep in the car on the way home at 4:00. I also had to wake her up this morning at 7:20. New experiences are definitely tiring, and I know that she is feeling the effects.

Of course, I didn't get much information from her about the day after school but gained some information by listening to her play last night. Apparently, Ms. Lauren (her teacher) is "a nice teacher". Also, "Riley can put it together". There's something that "we shouldn't touch" and some little girl had an accident but not the girl sitting across from her. Also, she was dressed just the same as another little girl, "with curly hair and everything". ...Clearly hard to get a good picture of the day. So, I'm going to observe her class this afternoon to see her in action, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how she's interacting with the other children. (They have a room with 1-way window so parents can observe without being seen - very cool!)

But, she seemed happy to be going back to school today and didn't even say good-bye to me this morning when she joined her class. So I guess that's a good sign. She is an incredibly adaptable child, and I'm so thankful that this transition hasn't seemed to cause her too much stress.

As a side note, I had told some people that I was a little concerned about the school having uniforms. As it turns out, their "uniform" is just a school t-shirt (that comes in four different colors) with any non-character shorts/capris/skirt/pants. I was relieved to find that out because I was concerned about the school taking themselves too seriously, if that makes any sense. Carl is absolutely elated about this school policy because it means considerably less money will be spent on Lily's clothes! :)