Summer is over…
Summer is over when the public school system says it’s over! Wednesday morning (August 19th) Sammy attended his first day in the first grade! It was his first day at public school as well! We live pretty close to the school – a mere 20 minute walk – and I decided it would be a nice outing and a good way to sneak in some exercise if we walked to school!
Sammy ended up in the bike trailer/stroller and Jack ended up riding half in and half out while screaming at Sammy for his toy train… It was interesting. Although, we made it! Firsts things first – we needed to to take some “look at me at my first day of first grade” pictures!
… Then we had to go into the building and explore a bit, meet the school nurse and find Sammy’s classroom and his desk and meet the teacher. (although, Sammy and I had already been on a tour of the school and we did already get to meet his new teacher last week) We got to his classroom and Sammy searched through the desks to find the one with his name on it!
Yay! Right up front next to the teacher! Sammy was a little overwhelmed with this whole experience and I did wish they had some kind of evening before school started where parents and their children could come by to meet the new teacher, see the room and just get the child ready more so than just blowing their minds away the first day. Like a pre-back-to-school-night or something. After finding his desk and saying hello to his teacher we went out to the playground for some before school play time… Sammy started to feel the pressure and the first day butterflies invaded poor little Sammy’s tummy…
I decided I would pull him away from the enormous crowd of children and take him to the bathroom. We got into the building and the bathrooms were locked! So not everything was planned out really well for the first day of school… We went to his classroom found his teacher’s aide who lead Sammy to a bathroom in the “big kids” hall – of course we had to stop at every kid we saw so this aide could give them a hug… chat a little… and I was like HELLO! Bathroom?? (she looked as if she might have graduated from 6th grade yesterday!) Anyhow – the bell rang when we were going the extra mile to find a bathroom and so Sammy missed lining up for his first time. I was worried that later he wouldn’t know what to do, so I made sure that someone was going to show him. We got back down his hall and realized his class wasn’t in yet – so we rushed outside to meet up with them and there was a little girl in Sammy’s class having a tough time. I asked Sammy if he’d help her and hold her hand to show her everything was going to be alright, and he said, “Sure!” It was here that I realized the butterflies in Sammy’s tummy had flown away and he was ready to take on the first grade!
It wasn’t a question of, “Is Sammy ready for the first grade?” – no… it was a question of, “Was the first grade ready for Sammy?” The first day I think Sammy shocked the first grade with his demanding, powerful personality that people do not realize he was born with! It must be so hard being so little with a personality that could run a country! It seemed to be battle after battle of attention, what he needed to be doing rather than what he was doing…. The list goes on and on. Sammy wants to learn. He just wants to learn his way, at his speed and on his terms… Public school is not going to allow him the rights to any of those. Although, the mighty personality and tremendous energy can be guided in the right direction rather than stifled. Sammy has everything going for him – but he’s just five and someday he’ll be something really big and powerful. As for now – the first day of the first grade annoyed Sammy…
1 down 179 to go… *breathe*
August 20th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I remember you first day of first grade you were so little, but you were also the big sister and had to show Paul where he was to go and to let him know that you were just 4 doors away. you went to a very small school only 167 people, that included teachers, teachers aid, staff in the office, the person that cleaned the school and the grounds people.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:38 am
[...] House anymore. Since this place closed I’ve gotten married and had two kids, one of which started school this week. Maybe the hotel will open before he graduates college. I don’t care anymore. I’m over [...]