Back to School

A week before the first day of school, Lainy's elementary school invited us (as a new family in the area) to take a tour of the school. There we learned that schools in Massachusetts are different. Different in the way that the government invests a lot of time and money into education, so the schools have some really great programs and curriculum that have been cut in other states. Lainy's school has a full time gym teacher, music teacher, computer teacher, and art teacher, a school psychologist, behavioral specialist, and occupational therapist, plus reading and math specialists for each grade. And the school itself is cute with lots of windows, murals, and bright colors all throughout. It's really quite impressive! And a little easier for me to send my little daughter to a bright, happy place like that.

The night before the first day of school found me packing a little school lunch in my kitchen at 10 pm and marveling over how fast six years can fly by.

Alaina was so excited for the first day of school that she woke up at 6 am. She came in my room, shook me awake and informed me that it was time to go!

A couple of hours later it was really time to go. Lainy was bouncing off the walls. Leah was sad. I was nervous. Sam was oblivious.

Then my little girls did this on the way to school, and oh, my heart!


Soon we found where Lainy's class was meeting outside, and met her teacher. By then she was starting to get nervous.

When in was time to say goodbye, we gave her big hugs and wished her luck. Then she squared her shoulders and marched inside.

Just like that she was gone. Leah and I looked at each other and walked slowly back to the car. (I only cried a little.)

Six long hours later, we had our girl back. She chattered excitedly about her "nice, pretty teacher" and recess and lunch. It was a success!

Now, two months later, Lainy is still liking school. The curriculum is quite intense for a first grader (in my opinion). She has homework every night. But Lainy really enjoys doing it. I try to make sure she has time to be a kid every day. The major hiccup has been kids at school. They've all been going to school together since they were three years old (that's how mom's do it here) and Lainy is the only new kid. So she's had a little bit of a hard time breaking into the little circles of friends. I've had to tame the mama bear in me after Lainy has come home a couple of times saying: "No one would play with me at recess so I just played with my teacher". It makes my heart hurt a little bit. I tell her she's so lucky that her best friend is her sister. Now things are getting better and she's making friends. It was only a matter of time before they realized what a cool kid she is!

{Side note: Does parenting get easier the older kids get? So far, it hasn't.}

We're proud of our little first grader! We love you Lainy!