First Day of Kindergarten

Garrett was so excited about his first day of school. We had lunch at the park with his best pal Linkon. After that he put on his back pack and headed off for the big first day. I wasn't too worried because I had done this 3 times before. In the past when I've taken the kids to their first day of Kindergarten they are happy to go. I of course go home and have a good cry. I figured that this would be a similar experience. I was wrong.

Blake was happy to see Garrett's class too! Garrett skipped down the hall. He found his desk.
Garrett happily found his cobby!
Garrett was happy to see his teacher! She is so darling and so nice! Cecily had her too!
This is Happy Garrett with Linkon at the park!
Suddenly as I was leaving a little boy came into the room crying and was seated at Garrett's table. Then Garrett looks around his table at all the many nervous children. Then he looks over at me by the door about to walk out. His whole countenance changes! He starts to frown and his eyes start to get teary. Then he runs over to me. He says,"Mom! I've decided that I'm not staying! I want to go home!" I explain that it will be fun and there is not an option of going home with mom. I eventually left. His sweet teacher had to hold his hand as he cried and I walked out the door!

After I got into my car I called the school from my cell phone to see if he was okay. They assured me he was. I then called my husband. He was as worried as I was. I quickly assured Aaron that Garrett would be fine and then called my mom. Would he really be fine? My mom assured me that many kids just like Garrett had made it through hard first days of kindergarten and were happy, successful adults now.

When I picked Garrett up he was happy! He told me that he had a great day! He said, "Ya I got use to it." So no worries I thought......

Then the second day was worse than the first day. Garrett ran out of the school twice. I dragged him back inside twice. Then a teacher's helper came to help me. I left with encouragement from this sweet teacher that Garrett would be fine. He screamed loudly as I walked out the door and got into my car. After calling the school AGAIN (from my house this time) I was told again that he was fine. Garrett had talked to the teacher's helper about his fears and concerns.

So the next day I asked the teacher helper if she would meet Garrett at the outside school door and take him to his classroom. He seems to do worse when I am go into school with him. She happily agreed to help us. I talked to Garrett about it and after some hesitation he agreed. When we got to school he happily jumped out of the car when he saw this teacher and that was it!

When I asked his teacher at the end of the day how it went she told me that he did great. Durning sharing time on the rug the kids were talking about how they were like super kids. She asked for an example. Garrett rose his hand and said, "I'm like a super kid because I just walked right in today!" She said that all the kids cheered for Garrett! Mrs. Walls said," Yep Garrett that makes you a super kid!" You did it!
This is Garrett's Super Kid Cape that he made all by himself! That is a G...for Garrett! (:


Garrett's adjustment to Kindergarten reminded me of Garrett's swimming experience this summer at his grandparent's pool. Just like all the big kids Garrett was so excited to swim in the pool! But there was one little glitch. Garrett doesn't know how to swim. I suggested a floaty. Garrett decided one floaty was good but four floaties were better. I tried explaining that he really didn't need that many floaties to be safe. Garrett felt safe with four floaties! Thus that is how Garrett spent the first day in the pool. The next day Garrett was happily swimming around with two floaties. By the time the week was over Garrett was a happy little fish with just one floataion device on!

Moral to the story.....Sometimes in life we need a few extra floaties for a little while to feel safe!