A big day in the Linsenbardt household! And a long time coming…
For the past few weeks, Meg has been pretty apprehensive about starting Kindergarten. Then again, we run through this every time a new school comes into play, and this has happened more than a few times to her. As the drill usually goes, on the first day, things are fine until you get to the room you’re going to leave her in, then she wells up with tears, and then she starts bawling…with a mix of a few screams… Typically, you end up just leaving her there, crying, because the teacher says “It’s okay – just go.” Eventually, she makes it through the day and you pick her up, and you repeat the same process for 2 or 3 weeks.
So far as the first day is concerned, today was no different.
Again, she’s been dreading this for a bit, telling us she didn’t want to go, that she wasn’t excited, that she was scared of going to Kindergarten. Perhaps we noticed it more because she’s been home with me (near constantly) for the past month, so it’s inescapable. Last night, when Mimi called to say “good luck,” Meg at least said she was excited, though that’s the first time I’d heard that expression from her. Perhaps the Open House on Monday night helped a bit, introducing her to the new environment, her new teacher, and that at least one or two old friends from her previous preschool would be in her class. Either way, yesterday was seeming a bit better.
Today? Well, she got up, she ate her waffles, I bribed her with 5 M&Ms to get the picture above (which totally has syrup spilled on her dress…lovely…), and then we left for school. Brooke and I both went this time, though Brooke will take over “drop-offs” from now on and I’ll handle “pick-ups.”
We got there and walked toward her classroom and were then directed toward the gym. We unfortunately didn’t make this clear to Meg that there was a good possibility they’d gather in the gym before going to their classroom, so it’s likely that disrupted her plans a bit.
Before we even hit the gym, the tears were already rolling.
To save some text here, I’ll just say that it took about 10 min for us to get out of there. Her teacher came in to help her feel more comfortable (and offer that she could help hand out name tags to her peers), and when that wasn’t quite enough, I offered to take her to Dairy Queen today after school.
That calmed her down. Bribery will get you everywhere with Kindergarteners.
Ultimately, we survived the first part of what will be a long, long story this year!
Good luck, Meg!