Kindergarten

For those new to my blog, I have 4 1/2-year-old twins (Benjamin and Ella) and an almost 3-year-old (Nicholas) (turns 3 in February). My twins will be starting kindergarten this fall. They turn 5 in June. The twins and Nicholas are 20 months apart.

This morning the school had a tour. Apparently, it was supposed to be for adults only but the secretary failed to tell me that in the e-mail she sent me after I told her I would be bringing the twins. Oh well, I wasn’t the only one with my kids there so I didn’t feel too awkward.

We got there a little early, so we waited in the school cafeteria for a bit for the tour to begin. The school had 6th graders take a couple or so parents on the tour. You could tell that the 6th grader with us (Leah) was a bit nervous. She first took us to the gym (they only have gym 2 days a week for 60 minutes total which seems so little but I guess they do have recess too), then we went to the music room (they also get this 2 days a week for 60 minutes total). The music room looked like fun!

Then we came to the 1/2 day and full day kindergarten rooms. Unfortunately, the full day kindergarten teacher wasn’t there because she was sick, but it was still nice to look at the room where my kids will be going in the fall. We got to watch the class for a bit (the sub said it looked crazy, but it is organized chaos).

We then saw where the rest of the grades were at, the computer lab, the library (such a cute little library), and the doors to go out to recess (which they get twice a day in full day kindergarten). Since we’ve been to that school to play on the playground, my kids know all about how to get to the playground.

Then we came back to the cafeteria for the Q&A session with the school psychologist, the school nurse, the registrar and the family advocate. The principal wasn’t able to make it, but I did meet her at the Kinderfest over the past weekend. My kids were getting a little restless during that time and were ready to go to their preschool.

I think my kids will like it there. Thankfully, since they only have 1 full day class there, they are o.k. with twins being in the same class. It seems like such a nice small school with only 23 kids in their full-time class. Registration begins on Monday and we’ll find out in a week or so whether they got into full day or not. The registrar says that they’ve never had to do a drawing on who gets into full day, so that is good. Full day does cost us $3,100 per child per year so it will be the same as what we are paying for preschool – not much of a savings there. We’ll have to wait until 1st grade for that, I guess. Of course, the year after that, Nicholas starts school so we’ll be paying again (unless, of course, our district finally lets full day be free).

As we were leaving the school, I asked Ben & Ella whether they wanted to go to school there, and they enthusiastically said yes. The registrar said that they are going to have another open house in May so the kids can meet others in their class and meet the teacher and get to play in the room for a little while. I look forward to that and I know Ben & Ella do too.

I do wonder how Nicholas is going to adapt to this change. His brother and sister won’t be at the same school/daycare as him anymore. He didn’t like it too much at first when I dropped him off at the preschool and left with Ben & Ella, but once Nicholas was in the school, he was fine. That gives me hope he will be o.k. this coming fall.

They mentioned that the K-2nd grade kids take recess together, so that means that Nicholas will have recess with his brother and sister. Hopefully, that is a good thing.

It’s an exciting next step in our parenthood journey. I look forward to my kids being in school. Parts of school I hated, but I do remember other parts fondly (like the book fair that the school was having today – I guess I’ve always been a book lover). I can’t wait for my kids to start in on the good parts and hope that the bad parts are rare.

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