I have a hard time believing that Abby is already old enough to start school and ready for kindergarten! It seems like yesterday I was announcing that I was finally a mom and shared the good news about finally becoming a family of three! Now I am spending my afternoons in the car rider pickup line waiting on a head full of curls to come bouncing out the front door of the school!
Our school system does a stagger start for the kindergarteners to help them adjust to the new schedule and new environment which I think is great. Her teacher was able to focus on 7 kids at a time and show them where everything goes and how everything works. God bless kindergarten teachers (and all teachers for that matter) for being able to handle the moods and drama of five year olds. I have one and I want to pull my hair out sometimes so I cannot begin to imagine dealing with 20. Especially 20 over-stimulated, over-tired five year olds the first couple weeks. When I did my student teaching (K-5 music), I had two classes of kindergarteners at a time (meaning 40-50 kids at a time) and I have no idea how I survived. I was much younger then. And a lot more healthy. Makes a difference.
Even with the migraines that have been plaguing me the last 4-6 weeks, I was determined to make the first day of school a special day. I am not an overly crafty person (creative but not crafty) so I took to Pinterest for some fun but simple ideas.
Is it just me or do you think the Pinterest era has created unrealistic expectations? That is another post for another day.
One of the things that I loved about Abby’s school is that they sent home a special card that had a poem and a little bag of confetti. The poem was about the first day of school and said that if you placed the confetti under your pillow you would have sweet dreams and great sleep to kick off the new year.
I think it worked:
Her first day started nice and early but once we got her fully awake, she was really excited about the day to come (none of the Millers are morning people). I printed off a First Day of Kindergarten chalkboard print and probably took a bazillion pictures on the front porch. I loved having the First & Last Day pictures from PreK to see how much she had grown! She picked out her first day of school outfit and chose a sparkly Twilight Sparkle skirt. The girl loves her sparkles and her Ponies (her cousin got her hooked). I also snuck out balloons to put in the backseat for her ride to school (that may have been her favorite part of the morning). John’s family had the tradition of going out for breakfast the first day of school every year so we were excited to do the same. When we got to school, she walked in like she owned the place:
After school I had a little surprise waiting at home. We had a little “you survived the first day of kindergarten” party (maybe more like your mom and dad survived the first day of kindergarten). I used the same picture frame from the morning pictures as the centerpiece and put a note, flashcards, and glitter on the table and attached a few streamers to the world’s most ugly chandelier (one day we will get around to replacing that horrid thing!).
It was an absolutely memorable day and while there are tears with watching my baby girl grow up, I am also excited to see her grow into her own little person and to see what God has in store for her! Her first full week is next week so hopefully the excitement continues!
Do you have any special traditions with your children for the start of the year or did you have any special traditions growing up? Would love to hear about them!
Our end of the school year tradition is going out for ice cream for lunch.
That is an awesome tradition! Might have to borrow that idea 🙂
Aww she is such a sweetie I’m happy it went well 🙂 xx
She has done so well so far and seems to have grown so much! She loves reading, has lost 2 teeth & has just started cheerleading! Time goes way too fast!