Alice's 1st real day of kindergarten

On Alice's first real day of kindergarten, she was brave and excited. Her teacher met her at the door, I dropped off some supplies I'd bought from the teacher's wish list (a little bribery never hurts) and bid my little supergirl farewell.

Around 5pm, I picked her up from the after school program. It's basically babysitting for all the kids of working parents. The routine seems to be that they go to the cafeteria and have a snack, then play outside on the playground for a while, then sit in the cafeteria and play with various toys and games. When I picked Alice up she had made this big thing and was spinning it. She seemed quite content and happy, so I never have to feel guilty leaving her there.

When I asked her about the snack, though, she said she didn't get any. It turns out she didn't really understand how to get the snack, and when she got to the cafeteria, "everyone was already munching." It was surprising to me that she didn't ask someone. She's generally good at advocating for herself, especially when snacks are involved. I took her over to the lady in charge (who was not very friendly) and asked what had happened. She didn't really know (great observation skills lady - don't you notice some kids don't have a snack?). Anyway, she explained the process to Alice so that Alice would know what to do the next time.

She was exhausted but happy after her first day. Here's some work that was in her folder.

Camping at Jordan Lake

For the three day weekend (which was a five-day weekend for the kids) we went camping for two nights at Jordan Lake, a mere 30 minutes away.  It rained all day Friday, but things seemed to be drying out Saturday. We had a prime camp spot because we'd scoped the campground out last summer, and I noted all the best campsites, and then reserved this one at the beginning of the summer.  It did not disappoint.

We had some cool weather blow in, so it wasn't actually very good swimming weather (although it was perfect camping weather). The kids had a lot of fun playing along the shore though.

When we got home, Alice made a paper hotdog to commemorate the two hotdogs she ate on the 2nd night of the camping trip.

Greek Gods

To keep Alice busy while we got ready for camping on Saturday morning, we had her paint. Most of the time she just paints blobs or lines, but this morning she must have been inspired. She made these two paintings, explaining that they were Greek Gods. (We currently have a library book for kids about Greek Gods.)

The kids do a show

Alice meets her teachers!

By Friday, all the new kindergartners had been assessed and divided up into classes. So from noon to 2 pm on Friday, parents were supposed to bring the kids in to meet their teacher and explore the classroom.

Meet Alice's kindergarten teacher: Ms. Winterton

Ms. Wilson is the teaching assistant.

Alice was disappointed there wasn't any work for her to do, so she sat in the reading area and looked at books.

The classroom

Alice's cubby

The kindergarten playground

Ms. Winterton has some country-western obsession. Alice called it the "farm room."

These are the bags where the kids will put their reward tickets.

These are the back stairs to the school from the parking lot.

I already got my first homework assignment. Let the fun begin!

Prairie Ridge

On Thursday, daycare was closed so Zac stayed home with the kids. He took them to the outdoor play area at Prairie Ridge. They had a lot of fun and got really dirty, because Alice made the slide into a water slide with a mud puddle at the bottom.