Athena is going to the Patchwork School in Louisville, about a 10 min walk or a 5 min bike ride from our house. For a number of reasons, we decided to start her out at a different preschool than the one Mazie attended (along with most of her local cousins, and her dad and Aunt Jen and Uncle Ian and Uncle Michael!). Last spring we looked at a few different options and decided on Patchwork due to its educational philosophy (the self-directed learning and focus on communication seem like a great match for Athena's personality), flexible schedule (she'll be going from 9-3 on Tuesday and Thursday), and proximity to our house and Mazie's school. We visited with Athena once in the spring, and at an open house the day before she started. I let her wear her little backpack to the open house, and she was so excited to wear it that she refused to take it off to eat breakfast before school started and sat awkwardly pitched forward in her high chair with the pack behind her. (A minor fit ensued when I insisted she take it off to get in her car seat.) When the big day arrived, she put her pack on and also got to take a lunch box -- we picked a John Wayne one that's been hanging around mostly unused since we got it at a family white elephant gift exchange a couple of years ago. If she was excited about the backpack, she was THRILLED with her lunchbox. Can you tell?
The drop-off at school went very smoothly. She walked into her classroom, put her backpack on its hook, and immediately opened her lunchbox and started eating some dried mangoes. Mazie and I gave her hugs and said goodbye, and she cheerily said goodbye back and kept eating. She's gone back two more times and has had a great time -- they've even gotten her to take nice, long naps. When she's not sleeping, she apparently carries her lunchbox around all day... and has even asked to sleep with it at home. So we're grateful to John Wayne for helping Athena with her transition to school.
On Tuesday it was Mazie's turn. Our big kid has been excited about starting kindergarten for months... or probably even years. Since we moved to Louisville, we've walked by the school and talked about how, "That's going to be YOUR school when you get a little bigger!" So she's been looking forward to this moment for quite a while, and hadn't really expressed any nervousness until a couple of weeks ago. We were on our vacation in Washington with Nanny and Papa, and she asked if she was going to know any of the kids in her kindergarten class. I told her that she wouldn't at first, and that made her a little nervous, but then we talked about how she didn't know any of the kids in her preschool class when she first started there, and how crazy it was to think about the fact that she once didn't know Matthew and Quentin and Katie. Then we talked about how some of the kids she met in kindergarten would be the same kids she ended up going to middle school and high school with, and how it was actually really exciting that she didn't know any of them now because it meant that they were all new friends who she would get to know for years and years. As a parent, it's always hard to tell how well these pep talks are going to resonate... so I was quite pleased when a few days later someone asked her if she knew any of the kids in her kindergarten class, and she happily replied that, "NO, I don't know any of them yet!"
When the big day arrived, we all got up nice and early, had breakfast, and then got on our bikes and headed to school.
We gave her hugs and she got in line... and then we gave her more hugs... and then the second bell rang and she and then other kids marched into school. She did great -- she wanted her hugs and I did note a little lip quiver, but she waved goodbye and was on her way. (Later she told me she was a little sad about leaving us, but that she had fun as soon as school started.)
ME, on the other hand... I think I started crying the minute we got to school and didn't stop until well after her classroom door closed! Through my tears I had the thought that it must be hysterical to be a kindergarten teacher and watch the spectacle of all the weeping parents.... Anyway, it was a pretty amazing moment... she's so BIG, and yet still so little. It was just hard to imagine her being in SCHOOL -- not a safe little preschool with 2-3 teachers and a parent around at all times, but a big school with one teacher and 20 kids and hallways and playgrounds and lunch rooms and music and art and PE.... Crazy.
But of course, she has done great. Her school actually has half-day kindergarten and then the option of "enrichment" the other half of the day (and you can do enrichment 2, 3, or 5 days/week). Back in the spring I asked what she wanted, and she said she wanted to go to school all day every day. So she has her enrichment class in the mornings and kindergarten in the afternoons. She even bought hot lunch one day this past week, and has circled the two days this coming week that she wants to buy lunch. (School lunches have come a long way... her menu looks really yummy!) So all in all, we've had a very smooth transition for both kids, and are very grateful to have them both in great schools close to home.
Speaking of home, I'm writing this many miles from there... in Accra, Ghana, for a 9-day work trip for a project looking at clean cookstoves and their behavioral, air quality, and health effects. I'm traveling with a colleague from CU (Ricardo... who happens to also be a soccer teammate of Caleb's), and we arrived here last night. We are flying from here up to our study site in Northern Ghana in a few hours. So I'll be gone for the girls' second week of school, and am also grateful for all the support Caleb has as he holds down the fort. I'm already missing those sweet little girls... can't wait to squeeze them again when I get home.
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