Boo Jr's First Day of Kindergarten

I woke Boo Jr up at his regular 7:00. He was pretty excited about going to school. We have been talking a lot about going to school over the last couple weeks. He ate his breakfast in a timely fashion for once because he normally dawdles around quite a bit during meal time. Normally I would leave for work a little before 7:30, but I stayed home to see Boo Jr off at the bus stop. It felt like forever waiting for the time to go by until it was time to leave for the bus. We took some pictures and decided to leave a few minutes early. It's a little less than 1/4 mile to the bus stop. We had to wait a while because we left the house too early. There were about 5 other kids at the bus stop including two other Kindergarteners. Took some more pictures and then put Boo Jr on the bus.

My wife and I walked back home still feeling nervous but a bit relieved. We drove seperate cars to IHOPs for breakfast. After eating, I continued on to work while my wife headed back home. I've been quite busy at work so that kept my mind off things for the most part. No frantic phone calls from my wife that Boo Jr fell on the playground or was beat up while riding the bus.

I left work around 3:15 to meet my son getting off the bus at 4:00. The bus was about 10 minutes late probably because of being the first day and having to get the routing of loading the bus down pat. Boo Jr got off the bus with a big smile on his face. He said he had a great time at school and it was "fun". The only SNAFU was that Boo Jr threw out his tupperware container that we put his afternoon snack in. We called the school to see if it was left behind in the classroom or on the bus, but no such luck. Boo Jr did fine putting his other containers back in his lunch bag after eating lunch so I'm not sure why he threw out his snack container.

Some other tidbits about Boo Jr's first day at Kindergarten:

• The school has about 15 or so 4th and 5th graders that help out Kindergarteners throughout the year but especially during the first few weeks. They are selected by their peers as being students that are really friendly and helpfull. These students go through training so they learn to be good helpers. They help get the Kindergarteners off the bus and direct them to their classroom. They might also help out at lunchtime opening up their milk carton and such. There were also PTA volunteers to assist and direct the loading and unloading of students off the bus.

• The school has the Kindergarteners wear a laminated bear with the child's name, teacher's name, and bus route number. They also put a "luggage tag thingy" on their backpack to help make sure the child gets on the correct bus.

• Boo Jr had library today.

• Boo Jr said that his teacher, Mrs. Gopher, played soft music during afternoon nap time. My son said that he slept but I doubt he really did.

• There are two kids from my son's t-ball team in his class.

So today is Day 2. We'll see how things go with it being just my wife getting Boo Jr on and off the bus.