Kindergarten

One of the “lessons” Mark and I felt like we tried to learn in our journey this year was to not get too worked up over little disappointments.  During our seven months of trying to figure out where we were going to go, and what we were going to do, many things came our way that got us excited then made us disappointed.  While not trying do pretend that little disappointments aren’t real – they are – we came to the realization that some disappointments just weren’t getting that jazzed up about. 

One disappointment that came out of our changing plans was that Nina can’t go to the elementary school in our neighborhood that we are zoned for.  In Loudoun County, when an elementary school meets capacity, they have chosen to send the “overflow” students to another school instead of putting pods or trailers on school property.  When kindergarten registration came around in the summer, we were nearly certain we’d be moving.  When plans changed and we decided to stay here, I went right over to the school to enroll Nina, but the school had already reached capacity, and I was told she would be going to an overflow school.

Last night I went to Back to School night for our overflow school, and I came home disappointed.  It’s not at all like the school in our neighborhood.  I came home sad and feeling a little confused about what we should do.  We are on a list to get back into our elementary school (it sounds like getting into a frat party instead of getting into your local public school), and if I homeschool her for the year, she’ll be removed from the list, and we’ll be in the same situation next year. 

I tell myself that thankfully it’s just 3 hours a day.  It’s just kindergarten.  We may even get the call to come back to our school sometime during the school year, and her teacher seems really nice, so maybe she’ll really like her school.  In the big picture, this will be a little disappointment – but, this is our first kid heading off to her first year of school, so it kind of feels like a big deal to us right now.

Today, Nina got to check out her new school, meet her teacher, and take a ride on the school bus.  She was pretty nervous about going today.  I was a lot more sad than I expected too.  I think it will be harder for me than I thought.  It will be hard for Lyla too.  She was upset today about Nina leaving us to go with her class.  But, we hope for a great year for Nina as she starts off her school career, and it will be good for Lyla and I to have some time together too. School starts on Monday…hard to believe.

Here are a few pictures of Nina at her orientation – meeting her teacher (on the left) and the teacher assistant, riding the bus for the first time, and sitting out in front of her school.