Noah’s First Day of Kindergarten

My baby started kindergarten this week. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I remember the day my oldest started kindergarten and I cried like a baby. It was very difficult to accept that she was growing up. Now my last child has gone off to public school all day and to be honest I am not sure I have even accepted the fact he is my last. When I think about my kids growing up and all being school aged kids I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut.

Noah is my most shy child.  He was so nervous.  Weeks leading up to kindergarten he would tell me he wasn’t going to go.  He begged me and tried his hardest to convince me to stay with him at least one full day.  He has also become more clingy lately which I assume is from separation anxiety even though he went to Pre-K last year for half days.  Some reason this big school made him more nervous and felt different.  I think he knew he was growing up…

The night before the first day he hardly slept.  I laid in bed with him telling him stories about brave and strong dragons, dinosaurs and princes that went off on adventures and journeys which ended with them coming back home at the end of their day.  He didn’t want me to stop.  We finally cuddled until we both fell asleep.

First day of school arrived and he ran to the door of the school.  He was excited and nervous.  He enjoyed helping me pack his lunch and he felt he was part of every decision being made.  His big sister walked him to class with me which made him feel extra special.

He already knew where he sat in the class and where to hang his backpack from Meet The Teacher night.  When he arrived at his seat the other kiddos were playing with Play-Doh but Noah was too nervous to do anything.  He wouldn’t even speak to anyone.  His face got red and I could see he was fighting back tears.  As I started to cry I turned my head and told myself to suck it up.  With him being scared to death already I knew if I let him see one tear go down my face it would ruin his whole day.  I had to stay brave for him.  I continued to focus on the excitement and how much fun his first day was going to be.  I think that helped.

When I arrived at the end of the day to pick him up, he was thrilled.  He was bouncing out the door and so excited to tell me all about his day.  He loved it!  The school even had a bounce house setup for some recess time fun to celebrate their first day.  That was his favorite part.  He told me all about their color system and how he stayed on green all day without getting into any trouble.  He was so proud of himself.

Funny thing… if you look at the above photo closely.  You can see his tennis shoes, his left shoe which is shown on the right of the photo, the tongue is pushed down in his shoe.  I had to giggle and ask him what happened.  He said after the bounce house fun he had to put his shoes back on fast and couldn’t get it correct.  The tongue of his shoe was pushed down inside the toe area.  This was a nice reminder that even though he may have started kindergarten now, he is far from not needing mom anymore.  That made me smile!