Has it been three full weeks of Kindergarten already? Alex rocks! He's been a trooper since his first official day of "real school" and has been enthusiastic about going to school ever since. One of his teacher's aides from pre-K told me recently that Alex has the attitude of a First grader. I can see why she said that given there are still quite a few kiddos in his class who are crying when they get dropped off in the morning.
I'm grateful we did pre-K last year, which had the same all-day, Monday through Friday schedule. There was virtually no transition this school year, which has made it easy on both of us. It's the only reason I didn't cry my eyes out on my baby boy's first day of Kindergarten. In fact, instead of walking him to his classroom every morning, I'm now dropping him off in the carpool bay in front of the school (parent volunteers are there who help him out of the car). Of course I hang out in carpool bay until I see Alex go through the main gate of the school. Then, I call my mom friends (who I know are in the classrooms) to make sure Alex got to his class Ok.
Thankfully he always finds his way, even when I've dropped him off with two minutes to dash to class before the bell rings. Poor kid. Me and mornings never have gotten along, ever. And now that I've got two little ones to rush out the door in the morning, it's by the grace of God that I get there even close to on time. Last year in pre-K I (along with some other moms I love) helped the class achieve the most number of tardies in the entire school (pre-K through 8th)! It's not something I'm proud of, but you're either a morning person or you're not.
As for me and AC/DC, we're settling into our new morning routine (albeit inherently stressful for me). I don't want Alex to have the "tardy" label. After going to curriculum night and finding out about everything he'll be learning this year, not to mention a strict color-coded discipline system, he's got enough on his plate ...
Each and every day, each Kindergartener gets a stack of cards. At the top of the stack is a purple card, then green, yellow, orange and red as the bottom card. With every infringement on classroom rules throughout the day, cards are taken away. The child has an opportunity to earn them back, but only like yellow and above--once you get down to orange and red, you're toast. There's no earning back. And if you're already on red and continue to misbehave, you get a "Boo Hoo Blue" card which goes home to parents and to the principal's office. Boo Hoo Blue is a big deal.
So what do you think is the first thing I ask Alex when I pick him up after school? That's right, the color of the day! Recently when his response was "yellow" and I of course expressed disappointment, Alex said something hysterical: "Yeah Mom, yellow. I haven't been able to get anything better than yellow. I'm like, enough with these cards!"
I'm proud to report he's recently got a couple of purples. ;-)
