Today went better than I had expected. In the morning Joel was in a good mood, but told us he wanted to cancel his first day of school. There was some reluctance to eating and getting dressed, but eventually we got out the door. After dropping off Mieka at my parents' we headed over to the school. Joel held my hand as we walked into his classroom. His teacher was there preparing, and showed us where to hang Joel's backpack and put away his things. Then we had to wait back outside for the bell to ring.
We watched the school buses pull in and talked about how he'll be able to take one next week. Then we heard the bell ring, and saw his teacher at the door. "Go on Joel," I urged him. He walked toward the teacher, looking back at me with tears welling up in his eyes. I smiled and waved, and we walked away.
As our car pulled out of the parking lot, I looked back to see him standing next to a few other students, waiting for direction from the teacher on what to do next.
I thought about him all day. At 10:00am I wondered if he was eating his snack, and if he'd used the bathroom. At lunch I wondered if he liked the little note I left in his lunch bag. In the afternoon I wondered if he fell asleep during quiet time. Was he able to communicate with the teacher? Would she speak to him in English if he didn't understand? Would he ask for help if he needed it? Would he be ok?
I arrived early to pick him up, just in time to see him walking out with the teacher, holding on to a rope with 5 other kids. "Mommy!" he shouted when he saw me, dropped the rope and came running for me. The teacher stopped him, and told him he had to wait until she said he could go. He started to cry. Sobbing in my arms. I held him and told him everything was ok, just that his teacher wanted him to be safe.
We stopped at Tim Horton's on our way home for a treat. He sat and ate his tim bits, drank his orange juice, and answered my questions about his day.
I told him I was so proud of him. I told him I missed him so much.
4 comments:
Sounds pretty good. Great that the only tears were at the end of the day. Such an exciting new time in their lives!
oh my goodness. i had tears welling up just reading about it. i'm going to be an absolute mess this time next year. sounds like it was a good day though. well, until the tears of course.
I am so glad it went well. I think tears are always part of something new, but that seemed to go as good as you can expect.
Awww, glad it went well. DS starts kindergarten next week, so this one really hit home for me!
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