Carson's 1st Day of Kindergarten - Take 2

Carson started school in the district where I work, and was super lucky to have been accepted into the dual language program. Due to my bed rest it will be close to impossible to drive him 45 minutes to and from school there. We made the tough decision to move him into the elementary where our neighborhood is zoned.

He, along with us, has had mixed emotions about the transition. He loves his teachers and friends at his old school, and was really excited to be learning Spanish. But, his new school is only a couple of minutes from our house (which means not having to spend two hours in the car each day and getting home close to dark), he will get to go to school with friends from our neighborhood, and in his opinion, the best benefit is that he gets to ride the school bus home each day! The dress codes are fairly similar, both schools requiring collared shirts, but his old school allowed it to have patterns and pictures, his new school only solid colors with logo smaller than a quarter. But, his new school doesn't require shirts to be tucked in (notice how excited he is about this in his picture).

We waited until yesterday to withdraw him from his old school because it was class picture day and we wanted to be sure he would get one and also be in their yearbook. Brian picked him up early yesterday so that he could complete the necessary paperwork, and said Carson cried in the office and on the way home. :( He also cried himself to sleep last night, making my heart break for him.

Luckily, Carson has never been a shy kid and has always been able to make friends easily, so we made sure to talk that up last night and before school today. He was all enrolled by 10:00am this morning, and even saw our neighbor, James in the hallway before going in to meet his new class and teacher.

This afternoon, he was all smiles! When asked how his first day was and he said "GREAT!" He already made a new friend (couldn't remember his name, of course) that showed him the ropes, ate tacos and an ice cream sandwich at lunch ("tasted even better" than his old school), got to run and play basketball in PE, and "didn't get any homework!" It is not even 4:00, and he is already outside playing with the kids from the neighborhood!

It is such a relief that today went so well. Thank God for making children so adaptable to change!

Carson's 1st Day of School

The tiny baby we held at the hospital 5 years ago started Kindergarten yesterday, and he had to be the cutest little guy in elementary (I am SO not biased...)!

Here he is with his Mario backpack:
We used my new silhouette to put his name on it in vinyl:

He posed a couple more times at the house for good measure:

His favorite new smirk to make:

I am all about sucking up to the teachers; a few extra brownie points never hurts at the start of the year!

We got the jars at Dollar Tree, baked some chocolate chip cookies, and downloaded the printable from here. It says "With you as my teacher, I'll be one smart cookie!" Carson has 2 teachers, one will teach in English half of his day, the other in only Spanish. His classmates are also a mixture of English/Spanish speaking children. By 5th grade he should be fluent in both languages. This is the only kindergarten class in our district to offer the Dual Language Program, and we are so thrilled he was accepted!

Brian met us from work with breakfast from McDonalds!

Carson was elated to finally be a "big kid" and wasn't the least bit nervous or scared. I did pretty well too, and only teared up twice the entire morning, which stopped after Brian and Carson started laughing at me!

We also saw my friend Jenny's daughters, Avery and Aubrey.

When I picked Carson up he said he had a great day!! He said his teacher was very nice and he didn't get any conduct marks. He played on the playground, cut, colored, glued, and his teacher read the class a couple of books. His very first school lunch consisted of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, oranges, and chocolate milk. (I think eating lunch in the cafeteria was his favorite part of the day) He also made a couple of friends, but hasn't learned their names, saying he needs "about 14 days to remember."