First Day of Kindergarten

Saturday, Connor's new - and wonderful - teacher came for a home visit. As is traditional in Waldorf schools, she brought him a small gift which turned out to be a sand dollar. Connor treasured this so much that - despite having a staph infection in his throat and feeling pretty miserable, he muscled his way outside to place it in the sand table out back. He was supposed to start yesterday, but he slept until after school started (8:30!) and he was in no shape to go to school since he'd been popping fevers of up to 103 for the past 48 hours whenever the motrin we were giving him wore off.

So today, Connor headed off to the 3-day "Morning Glory" class at the same school he has been attending with me for a year and a half now. This was his first sans parent drop-off school adventure. His teacher called me this evening to let me know that he fit right into the other children's play and had an absolutely perfect day. I don't know much about what happened, but I do know he spent an hour on the playground when it was raining and he must have done some jumping with others in puddles in the sand pit, because he came home looking like this:

In case you can't see the detail, his face has sand and dirt in many places - and he was smiling when I picked him up. The teacher suggested it was best not to ask him a lot of questions about the day - that if I wanted to know anything, she'd be happy to talk with me. So I went with the flow and just waited to see what Connor said. His comments? "I did not eat one single bite of porridge today (regular oatmeal with maple syrup, as opposed to the instant baby oatmeal he still loves) and I did not drink one drop of water. I did enjoy eating my apple though." Uh, OK, Connor. If anyone had asked me what part of the day would stick out in Connor's mind, it would not have been snack. Tomorrow's snack is brown rice with apples. Connor has already told me it's silly because rice is normally a supper food. I guess I'll know tomorrow whether he will rethink his categorization of if he refuses to eat that as well. Monday's snack will go over well - whole wheat rolls with butter and apples - because that's what we have in the parent-child class. He also told me there were no other children and no teachers and that he just played all by himself. I'm willing to believe he didn't eat snack, but I'm not willing to believe he was alone - especially since I dropped him off and picked him up and spoke to his teacher both times.

I'm a little sad to be leaving our parent-child class. Even Ed, who is not necessarily as much a fan of Waldorf education as I am, said the time he spent in the classroom this year on two occasions was really relaxing and a nice environment. However, I am delighted that on my day off now, I can spend it with both of my children instead of feeling like I spend my day off whisking Connor away from Helen.

This experience has turned Connor into a man I guess. He refused to let me help him carry his backpack, because it was his backpack, after all. He also spent about a half hour doing craft projects while I worked from home late this afternoon and Ed prepared dinner. He did, however, still request a snuggle and book at bedtime.