First Day of School!

Yeah, Dylan's first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, but you know me - I'm a little delayed in posting. The kindergarteners have to wait outside by a special door until the teacher comes to let them in, so I took these pics while we were waiting:

Dylan said it was too bright, that his eyes were having trouble looking at the camera without help from his hands. :) He's so funny and cute. And I love his little smile. Sadie, of course, wanted a solo picture, as well:

When the teacher opened the door, I was one of the only parents who followed the kids inside. I just... wanted to make sure Dylan felt alright about being there. He graciously let me take a picture of him hanging up his jacket and backpack:

And then a picture of him sitting down on the special mat:

The teacher didn't acknowledge me or the other parent that came in at all, and I was like, um, okay... I guess it's time for me to leave?? I thought she would say, like, "You can stay as long as you want," or "Alright, you can go now, and we will see you after school?" Nope. No acknowledgement at all. So whatever. He seemed alright, so I left!

After a few days, Dylan informed me that he wanted to ride the bus, instead of me taking him. Which is fine with me - less of a hassle. This way, I don't have to cart all three kids there and back. He loves the bus! It picks him up in front of our house, and it drops him off at the park a few houses down from us.

He is so brave. I didn't ride a bus until I was 12, and I was kind of freaking out at the time, I remember. But I was probably freaking out because kids were throwing stuff at the bus driver, and I saw a girl get out her lighter to "heat up" her eyeliner, then apply it inside her lower and upper eyelids. Ew. Like, she pulled the eyelid out and scribbled around inside. And of course, I was like, "Oh my gosh!!! She has a lighter!!!" And at one point, the bus driver yells, "Hey, settle down back there!!" And about five of the kids yell, "Ehhhh, SHUT up!" I was horrified! Such delinquency!! Hahaha. I have since learned that 8th graders are buttheads. Always. End of story.

As for how kindergarten is going, I think Dylan's teacher is a big fan of me. She sends "extra" stuff that you can do with your kids - not for credit or anything, but practice stuff, and I always make Dylan do it and turn in the "evidence" that we did it. I think most of the other moms throw that stuff in the garbage when they get it. Dylan doesn't yet realize that his mom is making him do extra work. :) She always writes little notes on the extra stuff - "Thanks for taking time to teach your child!" "Wow! Super! Wonderful! Way to go the extra mile!" His behavior in the class seems to have been great, until yesterday...

They have a little calender stapled to their take-home folder, and inside, if they have been good, they get a smiley face stamp on that day. If they've been bad, the teacher writes a little note on that day. He had all smiley faces until yesterday. Something about how he didn't follow classroom rules and refused to help clean up? I asked him about it and never got a really straight answer about what exactly happened, but I was sufficiently mad at him. So we didn't let him play computer games or play with the nappy neighbors last night, as punishment. I told him that, if he was bad again today, the same thing would happen tonight. And then I made him write a letter of apology to his teacher. It took us like an hour. In it, he apologized, said that he and his parents had a talk about it, told her how he was punished, and said that he realized that he would be punished again if he misbehaved again. :)

I'm such a meanie. But seriously, being rude to one's teacher is unacceptable. I will not have my children misbehaving in class. I will not be one of the moms who thinks, "Oh, it's the teacher's fault," or "Oh, the teacher and my child just have a personality conflict." I hated that when I heard that from parents when I was a teacher. - "Oh, you and my child just have a personality conflict." Like the kid and me were quarrelling siblings or something. I will always, always believe the teacher instead of Dylan, because of my experiences as a teacher. I know that sometimes child/teacher altercations might be a teacher's fault, but I think that happens in one of every hundred times or something. Not very often. Usually, it's the kid, being a punk and challenging his boundaries.