And Then There Was "Year One"

Today was Jayce's first day of school.  He's in Year One, in the Rabbit Class.  

This was the source of several confused conversations while we were visiting in Akron.  Chelsea had a graduation/going away party, and it seemed like everyone had this conversation with Jayce.

Person: So, what grade are you going to be in?  Are you going into Kindergarden or First Grade?

Jayce: Uhhh… (They don't use either of those names for the grade here, so he kind of had no idea what they were talking about.)  Then he'd finish with, "I'm going to be a rabbit." and run off.

But the truth is, even though I don't really want to admit it, it's more like he's going into First Grade than Kindergarden.

Last year he went to school all day long for 5 days a week.  And it wasn't like a preschool kind of set up.  They played a lot, of course, but there was a lot of time for learning.  He already knew his letters, but every day they did some phonics and he learned to read.  He learned lots of other things too, measurable and immeasurable, but this one is the big one in my book.

(One day this summer, Jayce pointed to the word "whatever" and said, "Mom, what's this digraph?"  I told him and then asked him what a digraph was.  He said, "It's when there's two letters that make different sounds, but when you put them together they make a new sound."  Honestly, I was a little surprised by this, because, though he's pointed out different digraphs before, he's never explained to me exactly what it was.  I was just a  little surprised by the fact that he does seem to actually get it.  I wanted to go hug his old teacher.) 

Regardless of what it's called, it's the next year of school for him and he loves it.  Honestly it's just me that has the problem.  I'm still a little disappointed that I missed out on my last year with him at least partially home with me.  (Last year I thought his school was only half days and was a little surprised/freaked when I discovered it was full days, but I got on board.)  And though we had a rough patch in the beginning, things ended up working out great.  

So, yes.  He needs to go to school, school is good for him, in no way can I replicate at home what he is getting there, not even by a fraction, so to school he goes.  I just miss my little buddy while he's away, but luckily I get him back every afternoon. :)  End of random processing mom-rant.

Jayce was a great sport this morning, jumping out of bed right away, got dressed quickly, and even happily ushered Hannah around to the yard to get some before school pictures.

 He was much more agreeable during picture time than last year.

Much happier than Chris and definitely more so than Hannah.

He even wanted to take a few pictures himself.  That's my boy.

Then we grabbed the scooter, sunglasses, and were off.

And as far as I can tell it was a great first day.