First Day of Kindergarten (August 2012)

On August 3rd, 2012, Alex started his first day of Kindergarten. Wow. How the time flew. As the weeks drew near to him starting, knowing he would be gone from 8 am to 3 pm Mon  - Fri, I reflected a lot upon the previous 5 years of his life. Had I shown him the love he needed to be confident in himself going into a new place? Had I taught him right from wrong and given him the gift of knowing how to choose the good over the evil for himself? Had I taught him to be kind, courteous, respectful, hard-working, faithful, optimistic, helpful, righteous, good, strong, and to have a thirst for knowledge? I always thought it was so silly when parents got all emotional about their child starting school. Well . . . did I ever eat my words?! It was very emotional. In part, I supposed, because I would miss our time together, but mostly because I was now sending him out into the world where hard things would happen, people would sometimes be unkind, and he would have to learn some hard lessons on his own. I was sending him out to where there are more negative influences (thought at his school, there is less of that than at most public schools ... thank heavens for great charters). He was so nervous on Meet the Teacher Night, but that first day of school, we walked him right to his classroom and he walked in there so confidently, so happy, and so eager to learn that I couldn't help but be happy for him and for this great opportunity to learn and grow. Here are pictures of his first day of school.

ENOUGH ALREADY MOM!!! ;)

Taking a dive in the fountain outside his beautiful school.

Bekah wanted in on the action. She asks at least once a week if she is old enough yet to go to school with Alex. :)

The hallway that leads up to his classroom. His hallway is the yellow hallway... see the yellow rectangle up there?

This is the newest campus of the Great Hearts Academies, so their desks had not arrived yet for the first day of school. I think they came about a week in. 

Had to take one last shot through the doorway as we walked away.:)

He attends a wonderful Charter School called Archway North Phoenix Classical Academy. ANP for short. It is one of the charters in the umbrella of charters called Great Hearts Academies. Their vision for education is just what we were looking for and we feel extremely blessed to have gotten in as they have waiting lists a mile long after the lotteries each year.

Now that I am finally getting to this post, I have to say here that we have been nothing but happy with this school. We feel like he got the perfect teacher for him and his personality. Mrs Kelli Sneed is his Lead Teacher and Mrs. Samelson is the assistant teacher. Both are wonderful, but I am particularly impressed with the attention Mrs. Sneed gives to the children. We had his first parent teacher conferences a coupld of weeks ago and I got emotional as I expressed to her how grateful we are for her. Listening to her tell us about Alex, how he is in class, how he learns, etc. She was right on the nose. Hasn't missed a thing. In fact the other day, he fell behind in class doing a number line during math and began to cry. She had Miss Samelson take over and quietly took him outside for a walk. They talked and he expressed his frustrations and they quickly discovered that it was his perfectionism that held him back, not his lack of understanding. He wanted his line to look EXACTLY like Mrs. Sneed's and was so focused on erasing and re-doing it that he missed the other explanations. She encouraged him and then sat with him while the other children started their lunch so he could finish. I just love her. He needed to finish that! He was so happy after and said, "Oh, this is easy!" Then, he gave Mrs. Sneed a big hug. Then, yesterday, she pulled his loose tooth for him and gave him a tooth shaped necklace to keep it in. She is wonderful. Anyway, can't say enough. A big Hoorah! goes out to kindergarten teachers! I have volunteered in his class and wow . . . hard job. Kudos to K teachers all over. I swear, it requires some kind of extra gene to have that kind of patience.

Oh, and for memories sake: His other teachers this year are; Coach Caschetta for PE, Miss Branch for Art, Miss Isreal for Music, and Ms. Russell for French. All wonderful wonderful teachers. He is so lucky. I wish I could have gone to his school!