She was very nervous this morning (of course). Worried about riding the bus, worried about how school would go, and had a bit of a tummy ache. She and I talked about how sometimes kids get tummy aches when they're a bit scared about something, but that it would probably go away once she got to school.
At 7:50 (around the time she often woke up over the summer) Andrew, Ali, and I were leaving the house for the long walk to #12 down the street, Ali's bus stop. #12 is located at the very tip of the circle and isn't really that far, I suppose it could be a quarter of a mile away, though probably not quite. It was a bit of a rush in the end -- Andrew has been sick this week and he vomited shortly before we left the house :-( but we still made it out on time. He wanted to ride in the stroller so that sped things up a bit. We made it to the bus stop at 7:55 -- her bus time is 8:05 and they ask that you arrive 10 minutes early. Ali was very excited to be up and out of the house before (as far as she could tell) the rest of the world was up. Never mind that Red had already left for work!
The bus came pretty close to 8:05. The driver was really really nice. I believe she said we should call her "Mrs. M" (though I might have the letter wrong!). She was very encouraging to Ali (who was obviously a bit reluctant to get on). She let me get on with Ali and help her choose a seat (she chose the one right by the front door and Mrs. M), get her seatbelt on, and give her a kiss goodbye.
Mrs. M also confirmed that we lived at #15 and said that since no one else on our street was on her bus, that in the future she'd pick Ali up right outside our house! (If someone new moves in they may have to move the bus stop, but for now we've got door-to-door service!)
That's it for what I saw firsthand. Now let me tell you about Ali's impressions of her first day.
Overall she *loved* it. Despite her positive attitude last summer about making lots of friends, today she was nervous because she wouldn't know anyone. But she told me that there is a girl on her school bus that she knows from soccer (this seems unlikely, actually, since I don't think anyone on her team goes to her school, but perhaps she's right, or perhaps she's just met another girl who plays soccer).
When we visited the school a few weeks ago we saw all 5 first grade classrooms. There was one that was Ali's favorite because it was decorated with stuffed animals, and unbelievably, that's the class she's in! She says Mrs. Menzel is really nice and doesn't ever yell (This is something I never heard before. I asked her if her old teachers yelled and she said that yes, they did sometimes when the class was too loud. Mrs. Menzel, in contrast, says "One, two, three, eyes on me" and doesn't yell).
At lunch time Ali was going to buy some juice instead of milk, but then she discovered that THEY HAVE STRAWBERRY MILK in the cafeteria (they'd told us they had regular and chocolate, but strawberry is her absolute favorite, and was a complete surprise). So she's going to have strawberry milk every day now.
She also made a friend (Samantha) during the two times she got to play outside in the playground today. She and Samantha played on the swings the whole time for both playtimes.
She takes a different bus to the JCC in the afternoon and she made a friend on that bus too. Finally, when she arrived at the JCC, she discovered that two kids from her Kindergarten class are participating in the after care program there.
Her homework today was to read her "daily news" that the class writes as a group every day. Here's her daily news from today:
Today's Daily News
Today is Thursday.
We are going to Computers.
We will meet Mr. D.
It will be fun.
We also got a note home that says the following:
This is what I did today:
I toured the school.
I started my time capsule.
I explored the math manipulatives.
I listened to a story.
I went to computers.
I practiced my PIN number.
The PIN number is the way they pay for lunch at school. You put money in an account and then they just type in a 6 digit (!) number. A picture of them pops up on the screen in front of the cashier to verify they got the number right and away they go!
Overall, a fantastic first day.
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