Kindergarten

The big day is here, Mallory's first day of Kindergarten.  

Mallory is attending all day Kindergarten at Akin Road Elementary School.  We are a few weeks in as I post this and so far, so good.  On the first day, Mallory woke up about 7:00AM, she watched one episode of Sponge Bob and then had her breakfast.  She was calm and ready.  Getting ready to get out the door in the morning is a new challenge for Mallory.  She has not had to do that since she was an infant and back then she didn't have to do much except smile and giggle to make it easier on us.  Mallory is used to lounging around and playing for the first few hours of her day.  She's adjusted to her new routine pretty easily which is normal for Mallory.  She has always adjusted easily.   

She gets to ride a bus to and from school and all of her neighborhood friends ride the same bus too!  Having the other neighborhood kids on the same bus made it easier on us.  Their parents are veterans at this where we are the rookies of the bunch.  Good thing too because the bus driver forgot our stop and the kids were 20 minutes late.  I remained surprisingly calm, as did most of the parents at the bus stop, but I felt bad for the kids, especially Lucy and Mallory, this was their FIRST time on a school bus.  The kids were anxious but stayed joyful.  Here are some pics from that first morning...

 

 

 

At the end of the days that first week, Mallory was pretty tired.  I knew she would be, but it's been a nice change from those crazy, late summer nights.  She's been going to sleep between 8:00PM and 8:30PM with no issues.  She's had a few nights with minimal homework, but I certainly don't mind helping her.  It's been nice sitting at the kitchen table with her, no TV, no iPad, no noise.  Funny how that seems more and more appealing as we get older.  She is serious about school and we don't have to push her hard to do anything related to it.  We are happy she is adjusting well, it sure takes a lot of stress and worry from us.  

During her day they partake in group reading, guided reading, lunch, recess, rest time, science, social studies, handwriting, and math.  She even has a math workbook they'll be working out of soon.  The kindergarten curriculum is intense.  These kids are learning and reading at what used to be a second grade level.  It's great to see their little minds learning and doing so much at such a young age.  I have been asked by other parents if I wish they had more play time and have been told by other parents it's too much learning and the kids are losing their youth at school.  I don't really know how I feel about it.  Right now it seems to be the right amount of education for our daughter, but that I am sure is different for each parent.  We'll just have to wait and see how she does down the road once we get further into the school year. 

Now that Mallory is a school aged child, she has shown some significant independence from us and even some responsibilities.  She is good at making her own bed in the mornings, putting her dirty clothes in the basket and brushing her teeth along with using her mouthwash both morning and night on her own.  It's amazing and sad all at the the same time.  She is indeed growing up!