Danica at Kindergarten, Day 1

Started to write this Thursday night, but clearly I didn't finish...

Day 1 of Danica's kindergarten year went well. Kindra and I were a little apprehensive about how smoothly the day might go given the fact that over the past couple of days (and occasionally over the past couple of weeks) Danica had expressed some ambivalance toward going to school. Fortunately, she's gotten better about dealing with new situations, so long as we prepare her and tell her what to expect. Of course, that process is about three weeks long, but whatever...

I was going to be the one taking Danica to school because of two things: 1) Kindra had just started school the day before and 2) Danica always seems much more clingy when Kindra has to drop her off anywhere. Used to happen at preschool when Kindra would drop her off and had happened just the week before when Danica was getting dropped off at her new before- and after-school care - lots of clinging and crying and fit-throwing. Probably not the best on the first day. For some reason, these things rarely happen when I have to leave her somewhere...

Anyway, Wednesday night, to get her to go to sleep without panicking, I promised her we'd go get a smoothie in the morning and go to Yogurtland after school if she was really good during the day (no, I am not above bribery to foster courage in these situations). Fortunately, this idea worked - The Girl does have a steel trap for a mind and never forgets anything. So after getting squared away in the morning, we trucked over to Jamba Juice to grab a smoothie, then had to get home so Danica could change into her 1st-day-of-school outfit. Was pretty easy getting that done, since she helped pick out the outfit. The only difficulty was getting Colin to cooperate and get moving.

We arrived at school about 10 minutes before her class started so we could park across the street and walk in (the school closes the parking lot because it's so small). Danica asked to be carried, which I steadfastly denied. I wasn't going to embarrass her by carrying her to school on her very first day (there will be plenty of time later to embarrass her). Went around back to her classroom to wait with a group of paparazzi parents who must've all known each other - there were a group of six or seven kids lined up next to each other against the wall, with the parents snapping away like a firing squad.

Danica stood silently and stared at the full playground as I explained what was happening. Seems on the first day of school, grades 1-6 are on a minimum-day schedule, so everybody was out at recess as the late kindergarten was getting ready to start. Danica told me she recognized some girls from her daycare, and she saw her friend Madison from preschool, which helped. She also recognized the teacher that did her kinder assessment the week before, whom she connected with.

When it was time for the kids to go in, Danica gave Colin two big hugs, picking him up off the ground each time (she kinda fell over with him the second time, dropping him - gently - on his back. Um, no I wasn't snapping a photo while this occured...). She readily took her backpack from me and carried it inside with the other kids to be put on a hook in the hallway. Yeah, I joined the pack of papparazzi snapping photos & video in the narrow hallway as the kids filed into the classroom. I think Danica was cool with things because not only was it the teacher she had her assessment with, but also the same classroom.

Aaaaaaand this is where things got tricky. See, she was assigned neither the teacher nor the classroom. She'd sat down on the colored rug right in the purple square she told the teacher she would sit in during her assessment, but she came out willingly... until I opened the door across the hall and said that this was her classroom.

She stood against the wall outside the other classroom & shook her head, but after a little bit of prodding, she came in with me. Her teacher was reading a book about the first day of kindergarten that we have at home, giving Danica another link to something familiar. We sat in the back until the teacher was done reading, at which point the parents were given their waves good-bye.

I walked Danica up to the front, and introduced her to the teacher, who was dealing with a little boy that was bawling (side note: so happy my kid wasn't the one bawling). We kissed good-bye & Colin gave her a hug and that was that.