first day of kindergarten

As most parents can attest, taking your oldest child to school on the first day of kindergarten can be a bittersweet experience. We were excited for Hailey to begin school and she was more than thrilled. She is a smart girl, her preschool experience last year more than prepared her for what was to come at school today. I think a lot of what she'll learn these first few weeks will be review for her, which is fine...I like the idea that she'll understand things well and that will hopefully help her grow in confidence that she can do it. We were a little sad to leave her at school all day, too used to having her around all the time.

Here she is all dressed and ready to go, backpack on and lunchbox in hand.

While Matt was trying to play it cool I think he was a little sad to leave Hailey at school.

And, here we are after leaving the cafeteria where the kids gather in the morning, on our way to her classroom. She seems so big to us at home but looked so little there with the other kids.

I picked Hailey up from school this afternoon, excited to hear all about her day and instead of her being anxious to tell me about her day she seemed a big sheepish- she'd gotten a time out on her first day because she was hungry- hadn't eaten enough of her lunch- and got up to get a snack out of her bag. So, she got in trouble. Poor girl. I know tomorrow will be better.

p.s. I talked to Hailey's teacher and it turns out she didn't give Hailey a time out; what actually happened was that H just ate her snack on the way outside to play instead of waiting until they sat down together outside so she just had to sit and wait for her classmates to eat before getting to go play. No big deal.