Emma starts first grade today. Holy moly. We’re in the big leagues now with the longer days.
This summer she grew and changed so much, more than in any other time of her little life that I can remember thus far. She really is a different kid when I think of the difference between the first day today and the first day last year.
It is hard to believe it is already August and the new school year will be here before you know it. For those of you in South Orange County who might be exploring great private school options, I wanted to let you know more about St. John’s Episcopal School in Rancho Santa Margarita.
Nurturing children ages 8 weeks (YES, 2 months!) through 8th grade, their program is teaching community dedicated…
My oldest daughter, Emma, was born on June 11th. Back in my day, most kids with a June 11th birthday would enter Kindergarten at 5 years old, so in my head I had always assumed she would go to Kindergarten the Fall that she turned five. Am I right?
But then during her second year of preschool, I started to listen to chattering amongst preschool moms on the subject of Kindergarten, and I learned that many of them were opting to delay starting their kids with summer birthdays in Kindergarten until they had turned 6, a choice known as “redshirting.”
I thought this was typically something only parents of fall birthday babies were doing…
Today is Emma’s last day of Kindergarten. The picture on the left is from her first day. I love how she wrote P for 9 in the date. And there is my Kindergarten Grad on the right.
In the first picture I can sense some anticipation and a little fear in her eyes, today they are filled with joy and excitement. And so are mine, as well as a few tears, but they are tears of happiness.
When I asked her how she was feeling about school coming to an end, she said,
Our family forged into unchartered territory this past week when our oldest started Kindergarten.
There she is on her first day. I saw this post on Angry Julie Monday and loved the idea of having a photograph with her holding a sign on her first day each year.
Then I thought maybe I will have her write the first day sign so we can also see how her writing changes year after year.
There is her handmade sign. I love that the date reads “P 6 11” instead of “9 6 11!”
So, we survived the first week and overall, she is doing great.
She has lined up and marched in with a smile each morning and for this I am incredibly grateful.
But the longer days and transition from preschool have been a little tough, I am not gonna lie! The first three days she would greet me with a smile at pick-up, then immediately break into tired tears and grumpy rants on the way to the car.
It has been a roller coaster of a week and there have been a few lessons I learned from this whole process of starting Kindergarten that I thought I might share for what it’s worth. If anyone else has tips or advice, please do share! As a mom, I can use all the help I can get.
In hindsight, I would have done a few things different, but being she is our first child I just have done my best. My friend calls first children the “first pancake” because as parents sometimes we don’t know what we are doing and have to test things out trial by error with our first.