First Day of Kindergarten!

Day one of Kindergarten is in the books for our M!  The short version is, he had a great day!!!!  Since you all know I am NOT a woman of few words I will also include the long version.

M has had big fears about Kindergarten for a long time, probably all summer really.  Lately he has been telling me is afraid  that someone will "steal him" or "beat him up."  Wow!  A little different than my fears of having friends or a nice teacher.  M has lots of fears all the time so this was not a surprise to me.  His fears are also perfectly rational when you consider his past and the way he tends to process things. He had such a great year with his beloved Ms. M last year that he just didn't think he could handle Kindergarten.  He seemed to think that every kid would have the educational abilities of a 5th grader while he wouldn't know anything.  Poor guy.

Yesterday was the first day of school for a lot of the district.  The Kindergarteners are on a different schedule because the first day 1/2 the class goes until after lunch and the second day the other 1/2 goes until after lunch.  Tomorrow all the students will be there, but all will come home early.  On Friday they all go all day.  Yesterday our bus driver didn't get the memo that M was in group B so she tried to pick him up.  She came quite early and we learned he would have a lot wait at school before school.  For those of you who are new to the blog or our family, you might wonder why he takes the bus.  M gets to take the bus as part of his IEP because of his separation anxiety issues.  He would have an impossible time tearing himself away from me, but will willing hop on the bus.  I digress... see I told you this is the long version! This all has a point.  Basically, I started to realize that M would get to school early and then have to wait on the playground alone for a long time... and it would REALLY freak him out!  He never knew about this. I emailed his team of teachers and they came up with an incredible plan!  They decided that M's Special Ed teacher would get him off the bus and take him to hang out in her room until the bell rings.  She would then walk him to his room. He would not have to be out with the masses at all! I cried when I read it.  I thanked God and said aloud, "Who am I to be blessed in this way Lord?"  It is sort of a rare feeling for me these days!  The joy and blessing were so rich and real!

The big day:
This morning M woke up at 5:30.  I was pretty pleased with this wake up time.  If you know M, you know he can get up pretty early!  He was really worked up so we knew there was no way he would be going back to sleep.

The morning routine went very well.  I was so studious to get everything ready last night so we were pretty swift this morning.  I will not be as on the ball tomorrow, or the rest of the year for that matter! M was not interested in eating much, but that is pretty understandable.  Brandon and I talked to M about our fears on our first days of school, even as we were in older grades.  He was following me around like a puppy, and making puppy noises too.  Pretty soon I was starting to feel like it was my first day of school. He was so worked up he made me nervous!

When it came time to go to the front door and take pictures and watch for the bus he was very nervous.  God sent a lovely distraction our way just in time.  The neighbors across the street were having a huge tree removed today and a whole fleet of trucks pulled up in front of our house.  There was much to watch while we waited and that calmed all nerves.

We were happy to see Cheryl (our wonderful bus driver from last year) pull up in front of our house.  M got on right away and off he went to school.

T and I had a great morning at home.  We had a picnic in the living room, we read LOTS of books, we went to the library, we did projects etc etc.  It was very tiring, but rewarding too.  I decided to just try to say "yes" as much as possible.  My Sweet T has had a hard summer and suffered much.  I just wanted to pour into her love and care in every way I could.  I was trying to speak into every love language hoping that something would hit the right spot.  It was a sweet morning.

M came home from school while T was napping.  He told me all about his day at school and the books he read.  He told me that he was nervous and scared but also happy at times.  He said he liked it.  He LOVED hunting for Pete the Cat around the school.  Miss F read the class the "school shoes" book and then a note from Pete fell out.  They then followed his notes around the school and just missed him every time.  M had a blast.  He told me that he knew it wasn't a real cat.  He said it was probably just a middle schooler dressed up as a cat LOL!  He never saw the cat, but he believed there was at least someone in a costume they were chasing.  So sweet!!!!

He shared quite a bit throughout the afternoon and evening.  He shared all good things.  He said he did use the bathroom a lot.  He has been going about four times an hour.  I am not sure how often he went at school.  Hopefully he will go less as he becomes more comfortable with the school.

Once he moved on to other things I was able to check out his backpack contents.  We have a notebook that all his teachers can write in.  Wow!  I had three notes about M's first day.  I cried again.  I praised God again!  I had no idea they would all write.  They are so thoughtful. They said he did awesome.  He was polite and got along with peers!  I just feel so very very blessed by his team.  In case you can't tell, I REALLY LOVE the school my kids go to.

The afternoon had some rough spots and aggression.  This is to be expected.  I was so thankful that T had a morning free from attacks.

We had a very tasty dinner of grilled food and melon.  After dinner M played Baseball with Brandon until bedtime.  What a great way to end the day!

We are so thankful to God for the wonderful team of people that rally around us and support our son. I continue to be humbled by the care and encouragement we receive from the school and church community.  We are so blessed. We can see God's fingerprints in it all.  He sustained us through the violent and trying summer days and He brought us to this beautiful first day of school.  How faithful He is!

There is so much more to say... there are so many photos to share... and they will come soon.  I have realized in the last hour I have been typing that blogging is self-care in many ways. It is also an act of self-care to not spend another hour trying to make this blog post free from errors ;)  Thank you Lord for this new school year!  T starts next Tuesday!  Hopefully there will be more posts up before that one!