Kindergarten Highlights

Caleb is eight weeks into kindergarten now (not counting his fall break) and, so far, he is really enjoying it!  The long day has taken some getting used to, but he has adjusted well.  He really likes his teacher and his school buddies.  He gets to have PE AND recess every day, so that is definitely a plus for our active boy. He loves getting to check out library books now and had his four digit student number memorized by the second day of school.  His math skills continue to amaze us, and his handwriting has improved by about 150,000% .  He is reading like a champ, and he has become quite creative lately. One of his new favorite things to do is make his own magazines.  Oh, how that makes my heart smile, since I spent a great deal of time in elementary school making my own newspapers. 

We have definitely observed him maturing more and more over the past couple of months.  He even told me yesterday that he really likes homework.  Yay!  I did, too.  I always loved school, which I guess is pretty evident since I spent nearly 21 years in academia.  His approach to school reminds me a lot of me at that age.

However, his two favorite things about kindergarten are actually two things that I did not care a great deal for:

1.  School lunch.  Caleb thinks that school lunch is one of the greatest things ever.  He gets to buy his lunch on Tuesdays and he gets so excited to walk through the lunch line and punch his number in the key pad.  He never wants me to pay his account ahead, because he wants to be able to pull his lunch money out of his pocket and give it to the lunch lady.  Since he has always loved to eat, it doesn't surprise me that he always tells me lunch is his favorite part of the day.   And how much sweeter it is on Tuesdays!

And here is number 2.

Riding the school bus.  Now I would have done anything to avoid riding the bus.  I remember when we used to ride the bus in the mornings, we had to cross the street and catch it in front of the First Baptist Church.  I would try to walk really slow and hope the bus would not see me and keep right on driving by.  It never worked.  I always made it in time or if I was a few steps behind, the bus driver always waited on me. Ugh! 

From day one, Caleb started asking to ride the bus. Actually, it was more like begging.  I have always been against having my kids ride the bus, especially my kindergartener.  But then Seth started preschool and Tuesdays and Thursdays became a day when I was constantly on the road...taking Caleb to school, then Seth, then pick Seth up, and then pick Caleb up.  It got exhausting quick, especially since there was an hour and a half lag between each delivery and pick up, so the day was really chopped up.  I talked to the school and they assured me that kindergarteners sit in the front of the bus and Caleb's stop is one of the first ones, so Eric and I started praying about it.  Once we had peace about it, Caleb's bus riding dream became a reality.  I really thought that after the first day he would get it out of his system, but after four weeks of being Tuesday/ Thursday afternoon bus rider, the thrill is still there.  He cannot wait to ride the bus home and reminds me before school that it is his day to ride.  He would ride every day if I would let him, but for now, this works for us.

It's great to be a kindergartener!!