We went to the open house a week before it started and Kaitlyn immediately started playing with the toys and seemed very comfortable. The teacher, Mrs. Woods, was incredibly nice. We found out the class was filled with boys and only a very few girls. I hadn't thought about this previously, but it makes sense since girls typically mature slightly faster and earlier than boys.
Friday, September 2 was her last day at the YMCA Y-Care she had been attending since she was 2 years old. Many of her friends were leaving as well, either going to Kindergarten or to new preschools. One of these kids was Connor. Connor has been around for a few years now and Kaitlyn has always been friends with him. When Kaitlyn's old crush, Justin, left she was sad because she had planned on marrying him. She asked the boys who would marry her and Connor volunteered. She did eenie-meenie-miney-moe with him and another boy and decided Connor would be her future husband. But sadly, Connor's last day at the YMCA was on Thursday, so Kaitlyn was already missing him. She told us she was upset because she didn't know who she would marry. I told her that I didn't meet Tim until I was 23. I asked her "How old are you?" She said "4". And I said "See, you have LOTS of time." She responded, "But I'm almost 5!".
Over the weekend she was excited for school to start. Tim and I were nervous. We hoped she would be ok not knowing anyone and especially being in a room full of boys. We shouldn't have worried...
Tuesday, September 6 rolled around and Tim took Kaitlyn to Sycamore Elementary School. She has daycare (at the new school) from 7:00am - 12:20pm, then she goes to the preschool room until 3:30, then back to daycare. When Tim dropped her off they walked down the hallway and saw bigger kids in their classrooms. Kaitlyn's face lit up. Tim felt confident this was a good sign that she would be ok at this new school. She went into her classroom and said goodbye to Daddy.
Tim and I decided to walk to the school to pick her up that day. He anxiously waited for me to get home and at about 3:45 we headed over. When we got there, we walked to her classroom and she wasn't there. We heard voices in the cafeteria and saw kids around the room in groups talking and playing. There in the middle of the room sitting at a table was Kaitlyn eating ice cream. She looked so alone. But when we said hi, she excited ran over and said "WE GOT ICE CREAM!!!" Her teacher was there and told us what a great day they all had. Kaitlyn made it clear she felt the same way. Despite being alone, she seemed so happy! We got her stuff and headed home.
On the way home, she continued being happy. We tried to get details out of her, but she didn't seem to have many. She didn't know any of the other kids names and said they didn't really talk to each other much that day. She could barely remember her teachers' names. Eventually Kaitlyn got so goofy, she told us everyone in her class was named Kaitlyn. Yeah, ok. Apparently we asked our limit of questions.
As the week went on, Kaitlyn had more to tell us. She learned that after fall was the snow. She said she found a boy she likes because he was nice to her. A big girl shared some crackers with her and the other kids. She played Sorry Sliders (a game she saw in a commercial on TV). And one of her favorite parts, she bought her own chocolate milk all by herself!
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI love this post!! (And she looks soo grown up in her new hairstyle! ;) ) Happy to hear about Sycamore's Pre-school and daycare programs...I am considering them for my Katelyn when the time comes. Today was her first day of Toddler Room.