First Weeks of School in Review

Looking So Cute...and Grown Up!

Ready for her second week of school!

So our little girl started K3 a couple of weeks ago and it has definitely been a learning experience for all of us. The first day went well, and Karina came home happy and enthusiastic about school. School starts at 8am (we get Karina up at 6:30am at the latest and leave for school at 7:30am at the latest) and goes until 11:00am. I pick her up in the pick up line. This is a great service the school provides so you don't have to get out of the car (which is especially nice when you have an infant in the car.) One simply drives up to the front of the school with one's last name displayed on the windshield. The teachers communicate by walkie-talkie to have the appropriate child sent out of school to be escorted hand-held into your waiting vehicle. All you have to do is pull over for a minute to buckle your child into the seat. They also offer the reverse service in the morning, when you can get in line to drop off your child at the front door. The teachers open up the car door, help the child out of their seat belt and if necessary (as in Karina's case) also lift them out of the vehicle. The child is observed to be sure they get to the entrance stairs and up to the door where they are greeted by the head of the school who calls each one by name, saying "Good Morning, Karina" as she extends her hand for Karina to shake and respond "Good Morning." There are teachers placed every so often the whole way down the hallway to Karina's classroom, which is all the way at the end on the right, to make sure no one dawdles or goes into the wrong classroom.

The messenger bag that Karina picked out for her school bag

We had heard from colleagues with children at the same school that they all like the childcare that is offered after classes are over, so we signed up Karina for two days of childcare thinking that she'd love to play with other kids for awhile. The first week of school started for Karina on a Wednesday, so we had Karina stay for childcare on Thursday. It seemed to go well, although Mommy sent an unacceptable peanut butter sandwich (no nuts of any kind allowed! oops! I thought they just meant for group snack time! One demerit for Mommy!) for lunch, and Karina did say that she missed me.

The next day, I decided to use the childcare again, since we'd paid for two days each week, and didn't pick Karina up until about 5pm. She told me she cried because she missed me and told me she didn't want to back to school again! It seems we pushed it too far that first week, which in retrospect seems obvious, with the stress of a whole new environment and rules, and then to ask Karina to be away from home at this new place for 9 hours two days in a row? What were we thinking!? Anyway, luckily after the weekend Karina felt okay about the idea of going back to school, but still had a hard time when it came to staying the long childcare days. We'd planned to have Karina stay for childcare on Tuesday while I was at work, with Tom picking her up around 5pm and then staying another day, probably Thursday, so I could get a little more done one day. Although she seemed okay Tuesday night, she again told us she cried because she missed us and again started saying she didn't want to go to school again.

On Wednesday, Tom took her to school and walked her in so she was alright with staying, but by Wednesday night it was clear that she was coming down with a cold. I wasn't sure how sick she should be before I kept her home, but she didn't have a fever or non-clear drainage so I thought I should send her, also thinking she might like staying home too much. But this was likely another mistake of overcompensation because I didn't want to be too "soft" and start a bad cycle of Karina wanting to stay home. She was crying by the time we got to school and she was pulled out the car screaming as I drove away, pulled over and started crying myself. My goodness, she's only 3 years old and she wasn't feeling well...who cares if she misses school and likes to be at home with me and Tommy! But I called Tom to tell him what happened and we decided I'd leave a message for Karina's teacher saying that we knew Karina was sick and would be happy to come get her if she wasn't doing well at school. We didn't hear anything and when I picked Karina up, she was smiling and Mrs. Klein, her teacher, helped her into the car saying, "She did fine. These things too will pass."

The next morning Karina was feeling a little better, so I brought her to school again. She did not cry on the way out of the car, but I did hear from Mrs. Klein around noon (I'd ridiculously planned for Karina to stay for childcare that day even though I knew she was sick, so as not to waste the money we'd paid for the service already!) saying that Karina hadn't eaten any of her lunch, had started emitting green drainage from her nose and had begun crying in childcare. She was taken to her cot (they have quiet time during childcare where each child has a cot and can have a stuffed animal while they rest/nap) where she had instantly fallen asleep. "Could I come get her?" they wanted to know. I felt like the worst parent in the world! I think we may hold off on the second day of childcare for awhile!

Luckily Karina forgave me (us) and was actually feeling much better by the morning when she was scheduled to have her first dance class.

Karina modeling her new dance attire

Karina's dance class is one hour long with only 6 girls total in the class. They stretch for a bit and then split the rest of the time between ballet and tap. They sit on little animal rugs and one student per week gets to be the teacher's assistant and stands up front with the teacher. The doors are closed so parents can only peek through the closed blinds and the kids don't get distracted by gawking moms and dads. But I did peek through at the beginning and end of the class enough to learn about the teacher's assistant role and to see that Karina is quite good at dancing, which I did not find surprising considering her innate sense of rhythm and musicality.

The dance studio**

**This photo is so funny because the girl in the back looking at herself in the mirror is a narcissistic girl who not only NEVER listens to the teacher but is ALWAYS looking at herself in the mirror, just like in this photo! I didn't know it at the time I took this photo, but I just had to add this comment late (today is 11/25/09) when I was reading the blog myself because its so perfect a representation of this little girl.*

Karina on her rug

Twirling her skirt after class, especially happy because they always get a tootsie roll!