It's hard to believe that my baby (who, just the blink of an eye ago, was a squirmy newborn) is starting kindergarten tomorrow. Tomorrow!
Some of you may have read my posts last year about Finn's transition into the pre-K Japanese immersion program. In short, it was pretty rough.
This year we are trying out our neighborhood elementary school, so it will be a new school with new friends. We have done a lot of preparations: social stories, visiting the school, talking about the routine, meeting with the new teacher, practicing calming strategies.....and I can only hope that the transition will go better than last year.
I am actually feeling pretty good about it though. I know that there will be a transition period. I know he will cry. But I think that over the past year he has matured a lot and I think he is much more ready to handle the independence of school. Don't get me wrong, I am nervous, but I am also feeling optimistic and ready to see what the new year brings us.
Wow, I can see Finn has really grown this past year...I recall the first pictures of him I saw when I started following your blog. I totally relate to what you are going through. We had our Joshua in a public school, then two different charters before finally putting him back into the our neighborhood school for good. That actually worked best. We just kept a close eye on things and made sure his IEP was followed closely. We met with teachers and administrators often, and, as we were actually laughing about today, we got LOTS of phone calls from the school in those early years...Now, thankfully, as Josh progresses in his final year of high school, we can look back and laugh at things that seemed so challenging at the time! Hope that Finn has an incredible school year! P.S. Your week at Burning Man looked like a lot o fun!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing how it goes. My eldest son has always had a pretty easy time adjusting to new things, but even he had some adjustment to kindergarten, he was simply exhausted! Good luck. It's hard to believe how fast they are growing isn't it?
ReplyDeleteSo exciting!! Good luck to Finn, I am sure it will be a great year. Can't wait to hear how the first day goes.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea and I hope the transition is fast and with the least amount of tears from Finn and from you :)
ReplyDeletegood luck! hope he likes it :)
ReplyDeleteI hope he had a great first day!
ReplyDeleteSo how did it go? I hope all went well and is continuing to go well.
ReplyDeleteAwww....would love to hear how it is going.
ReplyDeleteWe started our younger girls this year- and whil I still visit for lunch-and there have been some tears- it is going well. She WANTED to go this morning which was awesome and I was such a proud mama.
It's a hard transition to get used to, specifically the length of the time away from home- especially if there has been no pre-school- as there wasn't for either of ours.
XO
meant younger GIRL (not girls, our oldest is in 2nd.)
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