His First Day

I mentioned in our little what's going on recap, that we discovered that Jayce was going to be able to start school very late in the game.  We discovered on a Tuesday that he got into a nearby school, we met the teacher/saw the classroom that Friday, and he started full time the following Friday.  We were so happy that he would be able to start school right away, as we hoped this would help him to more quickly get acclimated to our new life here, and make some new friends.  

I discovered in that teacher meeting that he would be in school all day, 5 days per week.  We had thought it would be half days, so this was a bit of a shock, but it was our only option.

Jayce was excited about school.  He loved his old school and the prospect of school was a good one, even before he'd been to the building.  But as soon as he walked into the classroom to meet his teacher, he jumped right into playing and never looked up.  The teacher talked to me about how it was an environment of play-based learning, with a loose schedule of activities but the freedom for the children to take part in whatever made them happy and helped them to feel comfortable in their new environment.  

This sounded good to me.  My only concern was that the days were so long.  Jayce has been taking 2 hour naps every day and the school doesn't do a nap/rest time, so I was/am concerned to see how he is after a few days.  But he seemed comfortable in the meeting and asked every day if he would be going to school that day.  When his first day arrived he was very excited. 

Just not about getting his picture taken.  I can't even look at these pictures without hearing the whining that was going on, first Jayce, then Chris.  But the pictures still completely crack me up.  He's such a little grump in the morning, and that is a little like his momma.

I quickly gave up on getting a pleasant looking expression or any eye contact, and we headed out to school.  Luckily his day starts a little late, at 8:50, so we are able to let him wake up on his own, eat a leisurely breakfast and watch a few cartoons before we head out the door.

Then we were off to school. 

I like Jayce's school.  

It's big, but understated.  It's not fancy, but it's FULL of good "kid stuff."  His classroom has a reading corner, an imagination station, a dress up corner, a white board area, a computer area, a writing table, lots of little tables full of various activities for building, arranging, and other fine gross motor skills and tons of other things.  I'll have to go into his school another time or this post will become exceedingly longer than it already is.  But let's just say, the outdoor classroom space has a little area just for the kids to dig in the dirt, and has shelves of little Wellington boots for them to change into while they're doing so.  And I adore this.

We dropped Jayce off, he ran into his classroom and didn't look back.  Chris felt bad for me and took me to a delicious little restaurant near the house where we ordered breakfast sandwiches that  we thought were going to be served on rolls but instead were served on bread.  We're still getting the hang of various nuances of life here, and now we know this one.  But the mochas were amazing.

 Hannah and I went home for a bit and then headed out for a bit of this.

Yep, it appears that I'm learning to knit.

(Backstory.)  Last Wednesday we went to an AMAZING coffee/ice cream shop that is really close to our house for the first time, and discovered that the shop hosted various activities during the week.  One of them was for a group of "creative ladies," and met for the first time the morning of Jayce's first day of school, so I decided that I was definitely going.  It would be a good distraction and I planned to enjoy myself.

I walked in to a table full of ladies with yarn and needles.  The leader of the group was extremely kind, chatted with me a bit, sympathized about Jayce's long school day, showed me some books, loaned me her needles and got me a little lesson.  Another lady sat with me and attempted to show me how to knit, but kept taking the needles out of my hands to fix what I was doing wrong, and kept repeating the instructions to me as I attempted to not drop the needles, which are surprisingly hard to hold at first.  

I finally completed one stitch correctly, after which she turned to the group and yelled, "She did it! She got one!"  I got up at one point to wrangle Hannah away from something that she was wrecking, and the lady scolded me, nicely, that I shouldn't have gotten up because I hadn't finished my knitting.  She was great.  When I left, she pointed to a chair and informed me that she expected to see me there again the next week, and that I need to make her proud because I'm going to be her protege.  Which is fine by me. 

Hannah and I came home, had lunch, and took long naps.  I treated myself to a bright new tea cup that I fell in love with a few weeks ago, and decided that I would use it while Jayce was in school.  It's bright and sweet and makes me smile, a bit like my little guy.

After school Jayce was great.  I could tell he was tired because he was a bit spaced out, but not grumpy, and told me about his day as we walked home.  I let him have a snack, watch some tv and rest while I fixed dinner, and that seemed to work well.

If you're wondering about his crown, his class is the jellyfish class, and all of the kids were wearing these when I picked him up.

This morning when I dropped him off, I found out that he had been crying for me yesterday at lunch time, but then was fine after that.  I know he asked for me the first day of school as well, not sure if he was crying then or not.  But as the teacher was telling me this, Jayce dropped off his book bag, hung up his coat, told me goodbye and ran into his classroom.  So I know that he is happy there, has been ready and excited to go to school each day, but I think by mid-day, when he usually naps, he's just so darn tired.  

For now, we're going to stick with this, it's only his 3rd day of school today.  But if he continues to be sad and weepy by the middle of the day, or seems just overall too worn out by this new school schedule, then I might go pick him up after lunch each day.  We'll see.  The fun of constantly second-guessing your parenting decisions is upon us already!

He did make the school newsletter already though.  (On the left, by the arrow.)  That's my boy.