kindergarten

This morning, I woke Wiley up a bit before 7am. He stretched and said, is it time to go to school? I told him yes and he said, but I'm a bit scared. I tried reassuring him and encouraging him. I got him dressed and fed then gathered up Archer (who'd been up with me since 6) and we went out the door at about 7.20am. Archer and I don't usually leave that early because he and I figured out that the perfect time to leave is 7.37am--we miss nearly all the folks on their way to 8am things that way, and today we caught a lot of that traffic so we'll work on figuring out the best time to leave. The idea is to get Archer to Sherrill's at 8am and Wiley to school at 8.15am and me to work as close to 8.30am as possible.
Anyway, we got to school and Wiley said he didn't want to go, and as I got him out of the car his eyes filled with tears. He was trying hard to be brave and he told me so. I again reassured him. We walked inside and he saw the teacher who had come for a home visit, Carmen, but we were one of the first families there (even though we were a little late). The teachers said good morning and then Wiley said, "I'm feeling a little nervous" and started to cry. I, too, teared up and dropped a few tears at that, but Carmen gave Wiley a big hug and they all paid him special attention while I hung back a bit. They showed him around and Wiley showed one of the teachers his yoga moves. We met another boy who also likes star wars and legos, so that helped. Then we sat in circle time and I left after a big hug. Wiley went to sit in Carmen's lap.

When I came back to pick him up he was sitting on the swing with Carmen. He ran over to me and when I asked him how his day was he said "my first day of kindergarten was great!" I didn't get much more detail other than he made a pair of binoculars out of toilet paper tubes and knows all about the teachers. There wasn't much mention of the other kids there, but he seemed to chat with some as we were leaving.

I'm glad that first day is over and he is happy.