First Day of School Done

Today, my two lovely daughters kicked off their school year. Always an auspicious day. One filled with excitement, but also a little anxiety. The school my daughters attend have a policy that students will not know their homeroom teacher assignments until the first day of classes. So, that only adds to the mystery and the anxiousness of the first day, as all the kids have their hopes and fears regarding who will be their homeroom teacher.

My oldest daughter, who is the bolder and more confident of the two, was probably much better positioned to accept with a shrug and a positive attitude any disappointments the day might have brought to her. But she hit her jackpot. She got the homeroom teacher she wanted and was happy with the constitution of her homeroom classmates. Furthermore, my oldest daughter is in that enviable position of being at the top of the elementary school grade hierarchy, so she and her classmates can lay claim to top dog leadership among the student body. In fact, she proudly wore her "Lusher Leaders" button on her shirt to school.

It was the younger of the two, though, that got off to a shaky start. She's much more sensitive to and much less equipped to shrug off any disappointments, which, unfortunately, were plentiful for her this morning. First off, she was transitioning from Kindergarten to the First Grade, which is a tougher transition to make because it means that the "real" schooling starts, with homework and higher performance expectations. Also, at her school, Kindergarten classes are always together for every subject, which means that there isn't the experience of seeing new faces and dealing with variable personalities at different times during the day in different subject areas. So, being disconnected from the Kindergarten community she knew well was always going to be challenging for her. We just didn't expect it to be as challenging as it turned out to be. Not only did she not get the teacher she was hoping for, but there was only one of her fellow Kindergarten classmates (and mostly just an acquaintance friend at that) who ended up in her first grade class. So for the first 15 minute or so, that little sensitive lovely was a bit clingy, disconcerted, and wavering in and out of being utterly forlorn or putting on her best face and making a hearty go of it. In situations like that, there is only so much parents can do to help out the adjustment process. Fortunately, although it was touch-and-go for a while, there came that moment when she just, in her own mind, decided to go down the road of hope and make the best of it as positively as she could. Phew! (Of course, it did help that we managed to get the teacher to put the girl she knew from her Kindergarten class in the seat next to her!)

The verdict at the end of the first day was one of all around success. Both had happy faces when I came home from work and were excited about returning to school tomorrow. A very comforting thing to a parent!