First of First

First of all, I should be fired from my blog for allowing myself to get further and further behind despite the best of intentions. It seems to be yet another recurrent theme amongst my blog friends that it is harder and harder to find time to sit down and blog. And this last week could be proof positive as to why I have had not had time. With Joe traveling, and the kids and I settling into our fall school year routine, not to mention my need to get a copy of Mockingjay the morning it came out and read it in less than 48 hours, the word busy becomes an understatement.

That said Jake started first grade at his new school and for the most part it went pretty smoothly. There were nerves but no tears. He seems to like his class and his teacher. However, it seems that in some ways going from Kindergarten to first grade is a bigger adjustment than preschool to Kindergarten for several reasons. In Kindergarten (at least the school he attended last year) there was a lot of "hand holding". I delivered him straight to his teacher in the morning who in return delivered him straight back to me at pick-up. She was with them at recess and at lunch. Now I drop him off in the pass through lane of the parent parking lot and watch him cross the campus threshold. He goes to recess and lunch with his class but not his teacher and waits in the drop off area until he is released to me by the teacher on duty. There is a lot more independence and responsibility on his part.

He is also adjusting to being in class for 6 hours a day 5 days a week, which is really only an hour longer than his extended day kindergarten but may seem longer because he starts an hour later and sits at a desk for most of the time in the classroom (in Kindergarten they spent a lot of time on an ABC rug similar to preschool). There were a couple of days last week when you could just tell he was fried and it was most apparent on Wednesday when he had a full on meltdown at his friend Gavin's house, something that is completely out of character for him.

The other big adjustment is the workload. He is doing A LOT of writing, which he did very little of last year (in fact, at one point I even questioned it). I don't think he is behind but it will definitely take some getting used to on his part.

And finally, of course he is adjusting to not really knowing any of the kids very well. He has one girl friend from preschool that he knows but nothing like last year when he started off having one of his best buddies Sam in his class. Jake is very social and I know he will make friends soon enough. I am 100% positive that we made the right decision in moving within the boundaries of a better school. I loved his teacher last year, I really did. I just know he will get what he needs here. He already loves math and is reading pretty well. Now it's just time to get his writing up to speed. They actually write in journals every day. I love it!

A few pictures of his first day:

So another first has passed and I will never get used to how fast the time goes. He may be in first grade but he is still my baby boy.