1st Day of School

Herbert Akins Hawks

The first day of school came this week. For those who don't know, we have year-round school, which is why is starts pretty early. Courtney and Dylan actually started on different days, so I'll explain each of them separately.

Courtney started on Monday. I can't beleive she's a big 5th grader all ready. She likes being the part of the oldest in the school. Last year was a really tough year for her. She was upset about having to leave Lander and South Elementary. Plus she had to change schools twice. Once when we first moved here, then another time in September when we bought our house and were in a different school zone. So all of that alone was enough to put her in a bad mood all year. But then she got a teacher at the second school that made things difficult. This teacher always focused on Courtney's weaknesses and what she wasn't doing good enough. Courtney never received much praise from her. No "Good job on that" or "You are sure good at ___." I didn't say much to Courtney about how I felt because she did like her teacher. But she was so frustrated all year and a lot of it came from this teacher's actions.

So this year, we are at a brand new school that was just built, a new teacher who seems great, and Courtney is actually excited to start the year. She hasn't been excited to start the school year since about 1st grade. This is going to be her year. This will be the year that will make her like school again, and get her ready for Middle School. Yikes!


Dylan is in Kindergarten!! I don't know who is more excited, him or me. He's excited to go to a big kid school, to go to Courtney's school, and to be one of the big kids wearing a backpack. I'm excited because he is very ready to be in school. He gets so bored now at home. Having more structure and activities each day will really help. And a little of me is selfish, thining of all the things I can get done with only one child at home during the day.

He only went to school on Tuesday this week. They have 2 Kindergarten classes, but they don't assign them to a class right away. They bring the kids in for just one day so they can do assessments. At the end of the week, they assign classes based on those assessments. We were able to go to the school on Friday and find out who his teacher is going to be, look around his classroom, and meet his classmates. On Monday, he will begin attending every day. He's pretty excited because one of his friends from preschool will be in his class.

He had a great day on Tuesday and loved everything about school. He was a little nervous about a few things. He was buying a school lunch and on the way to school told me about his concern about the counters being too high for him to reach the food. I assured him that his teachers would be there to help. But he was glad to see that the counters were low enough even for him. It's funny to see what worries him. He did have one little incident that day. I got a call from one of the teachers telling me that he had gotten a bloddy nose. She didn't know how it happened. The kids were sitting in the reading corner when they noticed it bleeding. Dylan had to change his clothes, which is why they called. She didn't want me wondering why he was wearing a different outfit when I picked him up. She said he was fine with the whole thing, it didn't seem to bother him. After school, I asked him about it. He told me one of the other kids accidentally kicked him and that's what started the bleeding. Poor guy. What an experience for his first day. But he took it all well and didn't really care. It will be fun to see him grow during this year, learn to read better, and write better, and become a smart young man.