first day of junior kindergarten

I mentioned a couple posts ago about how Owen is starting school. It seems pretty mind-blowing sending a three year old to elementary school, but seeing his ability & desire to learn and all the knowledge he gained from child care I was looking forward to seeing him step up to the next level. We’d been preparing him for school for about a month now by reading books about kindergarten, taking him to his new school, having him choose lunches and explaining what will be different between child care and big kid school. All this talking-up got him pretty stoked for his first day. 

Here he is doing a dance (that kinda looks like the puppetmaster) before leaving on the first day. He was so excited, which is a good thing, right? Well, it also made me a little uneasy because maybe we’d built this experience up a little too much. But when we picked him up after his first day he told us he had a good day even though there were moments he felt lonely. Understandable because he was in a child care with the same kids every day since he was a baby. One of his challenges will be to make new friends. Thankfully, today, his second day, he bounced right out of bed and was raring to return, which was a great relief.

Surprisingly, his first day of elementary school wasn’t as difficult for me as his final day of child care. We’ve grown to love and trust the staff of his child care and saying goodbye wasn’t easy. Coincidently, Owen’s been with the same teacher for 2 years (he moved through rooms and staff shuffle somehow always kept them together). The teachers in the preschool room put on the most amazing send-off.

Look at these adorable chocolate grad caps and diplomas (totally out of nutrition guides, but I’m sure we all agree that parties are the time for treats and to indulge!). They gave us a box of amazing gifts & memories, including a class year book. I thought I’d share Owen’s entry.

I still wonder what sort of embarrassing details the child care knows about us via Owen. 

So, I spent most of the event choking back tears with a full blown sob as his teacher and I were hugging goodbye & thank you (hey, she started it!). I think it's possible I’ll miss them more than Owen will. Hopefully our daughter will get accepted into the same child care here when it’s time.