School Boy

The first baby is officially in school. Awhile back we were mulling over the decision to keep him in Montessori or to switch him to public school for kindergarten. We decided to send him to our local public school and we couldn't be happier with our choice so far.

His first day went really smoothly. It was a 3 hour trial morning. He goes part-time but full days - either 2 or 3 days/week. He is in a split JK/SK class so not too much different than his Montessori Casa class with 3 different age groups. His teacher sent home this sweet little note in his backpack the first day:

I was at work that morning so I didn't get the pleasure of picking him up from his first morning but the teacher told my sister when she went to get him that he had a wonderful morning and that he followed routines well. My sister mentioned that he had gone to Montessori from about 18 months. The teacher said it showed and mentioned that she may have to give him some SK work to do. I'm so happy she is willing to do this for him.

After that trial day, he took the school bus for the very first time. He has a bus buddy who is a few grades older who lives in our neighbourhood that walks him to and from the bus to his class. While many parents have a hard time seeing their child go off to school for the first time, not to mention riding a school bus alone, I wasn't even a smidge sad. I was so excited for him. We waved excitedly at each other as the bus pulled away and I knew he was ready for this next step. He has been unhappy lately at home all day. Now, every day when he gets off the bus he gushes about how awesome his day was at school.

One thing I did find surprising was his homework. Each week he is to read 3 books and the parents are to fill out a reading log. This isn't too much trouble since we've been reading each night since he was 2 but remembering to fill out the log has been a learning curve. He also has one sheet of writing to do each week - tracing letters and colouring pictures that start with that letter. Over the summer I started to try to work on writing his name with him and he got frustrated often so I didn't push it. He is much more confident when we work on the writing sheets together. He is really happy to get stickers from the teacher. It's the little things I guess!