Adalyn Starts Kindergarten

Such a big milestone in our lives happened last week.  Our first child has entered the wonderful world of school.  Adalyn's first day of school was last Thursday.  She is in afternoon kindergarten at American Heritage Charter School.

I really feel like this was a family event even though Adalyn will be the only one actually IN school.  But our life focus shifts a bit now.  For the last five years our lives have been centered at home and we ran our own schedule.  Now we have a set time and place that we have to be everyday for the rest of our parenting lives.  Ok so this is starting to sound bit dramatic, but it was a big moment for this mom.

Anyways, originally we had planned on just sending her to our regular public school, but in late July I recieved a phone call from American Heritage Charter School saying that someone had moved and that Adalyn was the next child on the wait list to get in.  Back in March I had randomly decided to fill out a form for her name to go into the selection pool for this Charter school.  I didn't think about it much after that.  I was not really expecting her to actually get in.  There are not many charter schools in Idaho Falls yet so getting in seemed a bit out of reach.  So I was pretty surprised when the phone call came in July that she got in (another child had moved).  After talking to McKay it felt like a good choice for our family so we decided to try it out.  Internally I had questioned at times over the past few years about whether I wanted to try homeschooling or whether I just wanted to send my kids to public school.  I could definitely see pros and cons to both sides.  So when this charter school option came up, it felt like the happy medium between homeschool and regular public school.  It will be interesting to see how the year goes and hopefully it is a good experience for her.

Leading up to the first day of school I kept asking Adalyn if she was nervous or excited to start school.  Her answer was always "I don't know".  So I never could tell what she was thinking or how she felt.  Honestly being the oldest child in our family and never having attended a formal preschool I think she truely did not know what to expect.  Her only experience with "school" was what she saw on her little movies and TV shows so she really did not have much experience with the real thing.

Finally her first day came and I could tell she was a little nervous.  But we got there, waited outside for her teacher to come out, and then she lined up with her little class (there are 3 or 4 boys and 8 girls in her class) and they marched into the school.

At the end of her first day she seemed happy, but still nervous.  She said that she did not meet anyone new and that she didn't have any friends.  She did really like her teacher which was great, but you could tell she was still pretty hesitatant about the whole school thing in general.

The second day came and she did better!  She felt more comfortable wearing her uniform and she was looking happy when she got in the car after.

Since then things have only gotten better for her and I think she is really going to enjoy it.

 (the boys wanted their pictures taken on the first day too)

As for mommy's first day of school experience... lets just say that I am glad I never have to go through another "first day of school" with my oldest child ever again.  haha!  Going into her first day we didn't know a single person at her school, we had never seen her teacher, and I did not even know where her classroom was.  So I was a little on edge about the whole experience while trying to act calm so I did not stress Adalyn out.  By the end of the day I am pretty sure I had a small nervous breakdown from all of the emotions (pregnancy hormones didn't help).  But since that day we have slowly figured things out and I really like the school and her teacher.  Driving her to and from school each day has also added an interesting twist to our day, but we are happy to make it work and show our kids that education is important.  Although I won't lie... homeschooling has been on my mind a few times during my daily drives since that way I wouldn't have to drive her anywhere.  But I think we will stick with her school for now :)