First Day of School!
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Kindergarten supply list |
Tomorrow is Mr. C's first day of Kindergarten. So please note the poll to the right.
I think we are as ready as we will be. Here is his ridiculously-huge backpack:
If you paid attention to the supply list posted above, you'll note that there is absolutely no reason for me to have insisted on him having such a large backpack (bought at a yard sale for 50 cents); particularly since my sister thoughtfully provided him with a perfectly-serviceable, adequately-proportioned, brand new one.
"Ah!" but I answer, "I couldn't iron on cute little patches to the Perfectly-Serviceable, Adequately-Proportioned, Brand-New One, thus making it personalized and cute . . . a backpack that all would know Belongs To Mr. C!"
And, OK: the backpack may have turned out a little ghetto (as most of my projects do), but we still had a lot of fun going to the craft store and choosing some patches. My favorite is the little robot at the bottom.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter if it's ghetto, seeing as how he'll probably never even use it, since there's no reason to carry his set of markers back and forth between home and school and -- being a half-day -- he won't even bring lunch to school.
I must say, I'm feeling a little jipped out of my school-preparations right-of-passage. Just a few bottles of glue and some crayons?! I wanted to obsess over finding the perfect little binder and filling it with cute folders and wide-rule loose-leaf paper! I wanted specific instructions on obtaining the perfect ruler, finding the proper hole-punch, and labeling composition books for each subject matter!
OK, OK; I know he's only in Kindergarten: all those supplies would be overkill. Of course, you'd think the school system would recognize that this is probably the only year parents will be excited about rite-of-passage-supply-shopping; schools should milk it for all it's worth!
It sort of amused me that the supply list indicates that we should provide our child with no more than 16 crayons. Being rebels, we naturally bought Mr. C a box of 24. Then Irony sneered "Gotcha!" yesterday, in the form of an e-mail from the Kindergarten teacher asking us to label every crayon with our child's name.
Every. Crayon.
Oh, if only I'd listened and only bought 16!
Sadly-enough, I was actually kind of glad to have this menial task to perform, since I was cheated out of hours of back-to-school obsessing.
Have you noticed what's on the back of Crayola marker packaging now?
Boy, nothing makes me prouder to be a Crayola consumer than knowing that the best we can do is to have that tiny end cap be made of recycled plastic.
School supplies in hand, we have the chance to drop them off in the classroom today and see where Mr. C's cubby will be. Then, tomorrow morning, we will take him to school.
For a whole hour-and-a-half, seeing as how it's an early-release day.
Everyone keeps telling me I'll have more time once Mr. C's in school (and, by "everyone", I mean "Bee"; and by "more time", he means "to clean"), but I just don't see it happening. The preschool he went to twice a week for the last 6 months at least lasted for 4 hours; Kindergarten's only 2 1/2. By the time I drop off Mr. C, walk back home, eat my breakfast, and catch up on Internet celebrity gossip, I'll only have a few minutes to get any work done!
You don't have to feel too bad for my tough situation, though: since we live right behind the school, I'm sure it'll only take a few days before I can just watch through my bedroom window as Mr. C crosses the school field by himself before I roll back into bed for an hour.
Seriously, though, we'll have to see how emotional the first day is. I think it would have been harder for me had we not done the preschool program these last few months. Even though he'd done day care before, and even though it was for only half a day twice a week, that first day of Mr. C's preschool was tough for me. As I packed his lunch (First Packed Lunch!) the night before, I was all nervous: so concerned about sending him off to this big, new environment. I was trying so hard to inject love into his lunch, as if that homemade PB&J could wrap him in a protective cocoon against loneliness and fear that first day. Teary-eyed, I cut out a heart from scrap paper and wrote "MOM LOVES MR. C" so he'd have a lunch-time love-note to bolster him through the last few hours (despite the fact that I wasn't even entirely-certain he knew how to read "MOM" or "LOVES").
Unlike his first day of daycare, Mr. C clung to us a little on that first day of preschool. Which isn't too surprising, when you consider that daycare was 3-4 other babies and toddlers in a living room, while preschool was 25 already-established kids in small compound. But he did fine on that first day, and I think he'll do even better for Kindergarten.
As for me, well, we'll see: since I was mercilessly cheated out of First-Day-Of-School-Preparations, I only hope I won't be cheated out of Volunteering-In-The-Classroom-Opportunities, or you really will see some tears. Ever since being in school myself, I've wanted the Room Mother experience: bringing the cupcakes, helping with the art projects, going on field trips; I love that kind of stuff, and -- being self-employed -- my schedule allows for the flexibility that is helpful for such activities.
I want to be Teacher's Pet, even though I'm not in the class! Of course, I tried to ingratiate myself to the Kindergarten teacher during registration by announcing to her that I was "looking forward to being one of those obnoxious moms who wants to help with everything".
I thought my self-deprecating charm would amuse her. Sadly, however (and the story of my life), she didn't seem nearly as impressed with me as I was.
I hope you know how to make gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, food dye- free, fruit-free, sugar-free cupcakes because that's all they allow . And of course some parents don't like cupcakes so you better call them muffins :)
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know that the gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, food dye- free, fruit-free, sugar-free cupcakes are a requirement nation wide and not only our school system.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Mr. C!!