First Day of School!

Well, our firstborn is starting a new era in our and his life.   Josiah started VPK today!  He was so excited, or at least as excited as Josiah can get over a new, unknown event in life :)  Judging by the drop off, he wasn’t really phased by the process, though he was sure to inform us that some kids cried when their parents left.  He was the second kid to arrive, so he witnessed it all.  While, in true Josiah fashion, he hasn’t told us much about it yet, it seems he had a great time.  He was more interested in telling us over and over that they didn’t want him to take his water bottle home with him (it will stay there for him) and complained incessantly about the thirst that he thought he was dying of at the thought of not having water in the car!  And before you think we were depriving him, it was only about a 5 minute drive to Subway where he chose to eat (and drink) in celebration.  Kids are so funny!

Waiting to leave for school!  He has acted like such a big boy today.  Although he’s perfectly capable of putting on his own clothes, he often likes help.  Today, however, he insisted Jacob leave him alone and Josiah walked out of his room with his shoes already on and had even donned a hat!

We are SO relieved that in the past few weeks Josiah’s attitude about school has completely transformed.  A month ago he was “not never going to school!” and was very insistent about this.  He was also disinterested and miserable every time I tried to have our learning time together.  I tried for months to get him to pick out a book bag or other school supplies in efforts to get him interested, but he’d get upset in the store and refuse to let me put anything in the cart.  I’d given up and just started buying the needed things on my own, then one day as we carted past book bags, he saw one that caught his eye and had to have it.  From then on he was hooked on school and went from just stopping the refusal, but not quite accepting it, to talking about it with interest and excitement.  Yay!  And phew!  In the last 2 weeks, especially, he has been picking out letters and initiating learning time.  Sadly, as it turns out, they don’t need book bags for VPK, but thankfully he was ok with leaving it at home.

On our way to orientation.  He was excited to see his school again.

We had his orientation Thursday night.  His teacher, Ms. Merari, is very no-nonsense and I didn’t get any warm fuzzy feelings from her, but she is very structured and made it clear to the parents what our jobs are.  I think she is a little warmer towards the kids.  My teacher friends assure me this is a great thing and that he will flourish.  The funny thing is that she drilled into us that the first job the kids have each morning is to wash hands, then go their desk and copy their names, then go to rug time.  We reviewed this over and over with Josiah all weekend.  This morning he dutifully washed his hands, then headed to his desk only to find that the chairs were all stacked against the wall and there was nothing to write his name on.  He looked so confused until Ms. Merari told him to go straight to rug time.  He looked like he might disagree that that was the next step, then happily went for the toys on the rug.  Such a cute, dutiful little guy!

As for us, I think Jacob and I are more excited for him than he is.  I guess we aren’t the sentimental types because we haven’t shed a single tear.  It helped that we had several appointments lined up for the morning to keep our minds occupied.  I will admit, though, to becoming sad over the past few weeks as I realized what Josiah starting school means to our family.  Aside from the chaos that daily drop offs and pick ups with two younger siblings in tow will cause, I realized that Elijah and I won’t have a Jeep driver to take walks with in the mornings.  And, when the baby comes, I’d so looked forward to having an older sibling to entertain Elijah while I deal with feeding a baby and putting him down for naps.  Also, Josiah looks out for Elijah when they are outside and I’m keeping an eye out from inside…and the list goes on.  I didn’t realize he had such a vital role of responsibility in our lives.  Then there are the fun things like playdates in the mornings and the freedom of being out of town or keeping our own schedule.  I suppose we’ll survive and I know he’ll thrive.

Still excited just before going into class.  You can see the “castle” on the playground in the background behind him.  That is what he is most excited about,  He loved it and was a dirty, sweaty mess when we picked him up!

Ready or not, here we go into our future of school and all it entails!  I can’t wait to watch our little man grow and learn.