Caitie was so excited about starting Kindergarten, but after dealing with two teachers, switching rooms halfway through the day, having to find and keep up with which line to go to after playground time, knowing where to put her backpack, water bottle, and lunch, and having to do more learning than playing, Caitie isn't quite as excited about it anymore. This is totally different than when she started Pre-K last year; she was excited about it, and stayed excited throughout the year. She was only there part of the day, and it was mostly fun stuff instead of learning, so it's a pretty big change for her. I think she was wanting it to be like summer camp. She went to the same school for summer camp, so it's not surprising that her way of thinking would be 'all fun' and 'no learning'; she seems pretty stressed out. She told me the other day that she missed me and wanted to come home after lunchtime, and she doesn't want me to leave when I drop her off. I feel for her, and even considered putting her half day instead of all day, but I think it's best she acclimates to an all day environment in order to be ready for first grade next year.
I haven't been all that happy with Kindergarten so far either... I had a problem with Caitie's morning enrichment teacher. I won't go into the details here, but suffice it to say that we don't get along, and most likely never will. I do like Caitie's afternoon teacher, which is the one we were hoping she would get after her Kindergarten Screening; so we are happy about that. Caitie has two teachers since she goes all day, this is so she won't get the same lessons twice in one day. Some of the kids are only there for 2.5 hours, some kids in the mornings, and some kids in the afternoons, so there are two regular Kindergarten teachers who take care of those kids, and two enrichment teachers, which equals four Kindergarten teachers total. Caitie has enrichment class in the mornings with Ms. A, and then she's in Mrs. B's (the teacher we like) class in the afternoons. I hope that made sense. I'm thinking maybe I need a Kindergarten refresher course... or somethin' like that. (see what i mean? i make absolutely no sense.)
I took some pics of Caitie's first day of school, and a few through the week as well. Here are a few of some of the pics I took...
I took this pic on Monday morning, before heading to her first day of Kindergarten. She actually had more to take than what shows in this pic. I made her a book box, which is for books they'll be making in class, and she had her lunch, which is inside her backpack, and her water bottle, which is on the side of her backpack, and she took a stuffed animal as well. She probably would have taken her Nintendo too, but we were in a hurry to get goin', so it was left behind.
It was chaotic when we got there. We were on time, but since it was so chaotic, we didn't get to her classroom on time. It seemed not many kids did; there was an announcement over the loud speaker letting all the teachers know to wait to take attendance for at least ten minutes, maybe more, due to so many kids still being signed in. There were long lines to get into the main office to get a visitor's pass and take her to her class, which I didn't have to go through, but didn't find that out until I showed up at a locked gate leading to her area; parents on the other side said to go around to the other gate, so back through the main office we went. We felt like salmon trying to swim upstream when trying to get around all the parents with kids trying to get their visitor passes and get their kids to class. When we finally got to the main gate to the Kindergarten area, I went to Mrs. B's room, and was told she only has her in the afternoons, which I figured out already, but didn't know what room to take Caitie to at that point, so was told where to go from there. I then dropped off a big bag of stuff that was requested by the teachers for each parent to bring, then took Caitie on to her classroom, which was just across the way in another building. As soon as we opened the door, we heard her teacher, Ms. A, calling her name, so we made it just in time. We were told to just drop her backpack on the floor and I could leave; the teacher was struggling to get organized, it seemed. So off I went, after a pic or two, that is. I just have to get pics, as I'm sure you know already. This pic didn't come out all that great, but I'm sharing it anyway. Caitie's holding the book box I made for her.
See that BIG bag in the middle on the ground there... see it? Do you see the BIG BAG? Well, that was MY contribution. Yes, I brought that BIG BAG. Look at me! I go all out. Only because we got the huge box of Ziploc bags that came in a container of four boxes instead of three, which is what was asked for; that makes my load o' stuff look huge compared to everyone elses. I didn't really bring more than others... but still... look at me! It might be the only 'good deed' I'll do all year. I want people to take notice! Yes... look at me! You can stop looking now, and you can stop shaking your head in disappointment... I know, I know... I need serious help. More about that in another post... um, yeah...
I ended up going to the wrong spot to pick Caitie up after school. I was told she would be let out near the basketball courts, so I went a half hour early to make sure I would get a good spot, because let me tell ya... the parking lot can get pretty scary at pick-up time. Parents are in no mood to mess around when it comes to pickin' up their kids. It's summer... it's hot... it's REALLY HOT, and so it's best to plan pick-up time carefully. I made a bottle for Bailey, drove around a bit before getting to the school in order to make sure the air conditioner had really cold air and would last a bit while sitting, brought a gallon of water, a snack, dinner, a book, my Nintendo, my cell phone... I was all set... just kidding about the gallon of water... anyway, out of all my planning, I got a really good spot at the wrong place. Yep, that's what happened, my friends. After being there 40 minutes, which was 30 minutes early to pick her up, and then waiting 10 minutes at the scheduled pick-up time, I made a call to the front office. It was just off the parking lot where I was parked and waiting, but I didn't dare leave my vehicle with fear someone might try to move it while I was gone so they would have a better space, even though a lot of the kids had already been picked up by then, but still, you can never be too careful in that situation... trust me; I learned that last year. Anyway, I was told pick-up was at the Kindergarten main gate for the first two weeks of school, then it would be at the basketball courts. By this time Caitie was waiting in the main office, so that's where I went to get her. This was after I finally decided to drive around to the other side of the school, thinking it would be faster and not having to walk as long in the sun and heat, which ended up not being the case, but let's move on from that... I finally met up with Caitie. When we left the building, Caitie was practically in tears due to having left her water bottle behind. So we went back to get it. That's when I took the two pics below. We were told her water bottle was on the picnic table near her afternoon classroom, so off we went to get it. No one was there, so I took a few pics... this is her afternoon classroom...
This is part of the playground near her classrooms.
We finally made it to the truck! Yay! We were all happy to be in the truck, but I just had to take another pic... I wanted to show that Bailey came along for the ride as well. I then jumped in the truck, and turned the AC on full blast, and off we went.
I took this pic once we got home. It shows her name tag. Caitie wants to go by Caitlin this year; we'll see how it goes. I have yet to call her Caitlin. I just can't bring myself to do it; it feels strange. Her friends from last year still call her Caitie.
I added her strip of tape to the name tag she got from Pre-K last year. It has Caitlin on her name tag for last year, but on her first day, after they had already written her name tag, I told her teacher that she went by Caitie, so they changed it after that. The orange stickers are my visitor's pass stickers; one for last year and one for this year.
Bailey was glad her big sister was home. They were playing together in no time. We had to add this gate recently to keep Bailey from climbing the stairs. We let her climb them when someone is with her, but want to keep her off of them when she's free to play in the area.
I took this pic the next day; Bailey and I had just arrived at our parking spot, which was in a different spot than the day before, and were waiting in the cool truck for Caitie's class to let out.
We were parked near the creek, which is in front of the school. I found a shady spot to park. We were waiting for the traffic jam to clear up; Caitie decided to sit down and take a break while waiting.
Look at the sticker on her shirt... it's hard to believe she'll be graduating from high school in 2024... wow... we have a long way to go of planning ahead for good parking at pick-up time, and dealing with certain types of teachers, and well... just planning...
