The big first day

Yesterday was Elena's first day of kindergarten. It feels like the last month or two have been just prelude to yesterday, what with all the shopping for the uniform, the purchase of her book for English classes, and the general excitement that has been surrounding everything even remotely related to St. George's College.

The morning (she starts at 8 and finishes at 12:30) went pretty well, her teachers said she was good, if quiet. That quiet won't last long, I'm sure, the girl loves to talk. Here are a few pictures.

If she looks nervous, it is because she is. She got a stomach ache as we
drove into the school parking lot.

This shows less anxiety and more of the cool old gate to the school.

In the classroom she found something that would have made Ben comfortable,
but large plastic dinosaurs are less important to her than to her brother. Ben
was with us, and as soon as he saw them he ran over and played until we left.

Puzzles are more her style. Behind her is one of her two teachers, Maite.
The little girl behind Maite is wearing one of the little smocks that the kids are
supposed to wear nearly all day. Sadly that is the one bit of the uniform that
she doesn't like, and today at dropoff burst into tears when told to put it on.
We asked her why she doesn't like it and she responded that she didn't like
"the style". I suspect she is annoyed that the boys wear brown ones and she
has the blue and white checkerboard kind.

That's all the photos we have, although we have more stories. The families in the class have been extremely welcoming, the parents more than the children, of course. That being said, Ellie has an invitation to a birthday party tomorrow (she's going to go) and we are invited to a BBQ at the school with the families from her class of 27. The other 26 started in the same pre-K class, and she is the only new one, which makes it a bit harder for her, but everybody seems to understand how difficult it is for her, and they all are trying hard to help.

Today's new thing is the bus - she will be riding it home after school every day. There is a driver and a helper, and all the buses are required to have safety belts by school rules, but I'm still nervous.

Right, well, that's all for now. I need to go drop off some drycleaning and pick up Ben. He's doing better on his own at the preschool than we had expected, which has made Ellie's transition easier for me to handle.