First Day of First Grade

We've really been enjoying Summer at our house.  Joe was ready for more structure though.  He missed the first day of school because we got to pick Stephanie up from the airport from her mission! Wahoo!  I gave him the choice to come with us to pick her up and miss his first day, or go to the first day of school and see her that night and he decided to miss the first day.

The night before and morning of school Joe was a little sad, and told me he was going to miss me.  And Max.  He was also concerned that school was going to be hard since he was going to first grade now.  I tried to alleviate his concerns, telling him that kindergarten helped prepare him for first grade and that we will still get to spend  a lot of time together as a family.

When he got home from his first day he told me it wasn't very good and "I really missed you, Mom." So we talked about his day and some of the things that happened.  It's a little hard to tell from his perspective, but I think the recess after lunch Joe missed the bell, and was out with another class and got  a little lost.  He got a little teary that fist day.  He was re-telling the story and dinner and said, "...I was sitting by the wall...just thinking about you, Mom, and how I really missed you..."  When he started crying at the dinner table Zach had him get out of his seat to give Zach a hug, and Joe said, "I don't know why water is falling out of my eyes?!"  Oh, it was so sweet and funny.  And I was a little flattered that he missed me so much.

So that night, Zach gave Joe and Will a blessing, and then Max sat on the chair and said, "my turn!"  So, Max got one too.  Every day since then Joe has said that it has gotten better.

And then there is this kid who is just too cool for school.

No, but seriously.  I took Will to sign up/meet preschool teachers this summer and it was a major flop.   He froze up and freaked out and two of the three preschool and the third one he was ok with, but I wasn't a huge fan.  Anyway the first day of Joe's school was rough for Will!  He missed him a lot.  I would love to get a little play-group together, but he doesn't have a lot of friends his age and two of them are pretty shy.  So I saw this sign driving home one day and I thought, "why not?"  So I took him to meet the teacher, and although he never made it inside the home, he didn't freak out and he even agreed he would go back to the open house next week, so we'll see what happens.