Hellobee

It’s weird — one day you’re telling your child to stay by your side at the grocery store, and the next day you’re putting them on a school bus with a driver you’ve never met! Fortunately, BeBe’s first few days of kindergarten went well! This school year is off to a good start, but there have been a few surprises and adjustments.

Here are few:

1) Too much energy – I had heard she would come home from school exhausted, however, we are having the opposite experience. She is full of energy at the end of the day! We have go to the park in the evening just for her to burn off some energy. Maybe it’s because she’s trying hard to follow the rules and sit in her seat at school and the bus, that by the end of the day she just wants to run free. Granted, we are only at the beginning of the school year. I wonder if she will still have so much energy after school once their intensive reading program starts in the fall.

2) Homework is optional – I thought teachers fell into the “assign homework” group or “no homework” group. However, BeBe’s teacher is giving parents the option. The teacher assigns one homework packet on Monday, and the kids have until the following Monday to complete it. The benefit of doing homework is that it allows to know what she is learning at school, and gauge her understanding of the material. It also instills good homework habits. However, I love that she can just come home and relax. She misses playing with her brother on school days, and they play well together in the evenings and on weekends. We can pick and choose which week to do homework, but I’d rather be consistent. I know there is a lot of research on this topic, and we’ll need to figure this out soon. I am curious to know how other parents are approaching optional homework.

3) She is hungry and very thirsty after school – The first few days she didn’t have time to finish her lunch. She would come home, drink two glasses of water and ask for more snacks. Now she understands, she can’t play and talk all through lunch. She needs to eat, then play at recess. Their teacher is also letting them take water bottles to school which is helpful.

4) Not all the adults are pleasant – Her teacher is amazing, and BeBe looks forward to school every morning. However, the bus driver is a different story. (My sympathies go out to the bus driver, because trying to keep my two kids quiet in a car is enough to stretch my patience. I can’t imagine supervising a bus full of kids and driving safely). We had a talk with BeBe about how the bus driver has strict rules for safety, and sometimes it can make a grown-up grumpy when kids are not following the rules. We also are trying the old adage “kill them with kindness.” So every day she offers a friendly greeting to the bus driver, and BeBe said the bus driver is much more pleasant now. Overall, BeBe loves riding the bus with all the neighborhood kids. She’s been begging to ride the bus for the last two years, and I’m happy this is working out for her.

5) Our little guy had the hardest adjustment – We were really focused on preparing BeBe for school that I didn’t think to plan any fun outings for him. Our poor little guy was upset seeing her off to school those first few mornings. We are falling into a routine now, but he just seemed lost without big sister in the beginning. On a related note, I forgot how easy it is to manage only one kid when I’m out running errands.

I definitely miss having my sweet girl by my side. But one of the best moments of my day is watching her bound off the school bus, bursting with excitement. She loves her new teacher, learning compound words, riding the bus like a big kid, and all of these new adventures. We’re officially in a new phase of parenthood, with an elementary school kid, and it’s been exciting so far!

How’s your experience been? Does your little one like kindergarten?