First Day of School

Julia, Ethan, Christian, and Elliott all had their first day of school today! They were all pretty excited. Earlier in the week we found out that we could look up their teachers online. Ethan had Julia's teacher from last year, Christian had Ethan's teacher from when he was in 2nd grade, and Elliott had the only kindergarten teacher for the school. So they were all pretty excited based on the good things that their older siblings had told them. We didn't know anything about either of the 5th grade teachers, so Julia was a little nervous.

Then, the night before the first day, the school had a back-to-school night. All of the children got to go drop their stuff off at their classrooms, meet their teachers, and the older children got to pick their desks. Julia picked her desk based on location in the classroom, even though a spot was open next to one of her friends. She later told me that she wishes she would have picked the one next to her friend instead. Ethan picked his based on sitting next to his friends. Originally he had a spot, but then one of his friends came in to the classroom. The spot next to Ethan was already taken, so Ethan moved his spot so they could sit next to each other. Unfortunately, they picked two chairs at the very back of the classroom. Ethan told me it worked out even better than expected though because a third friend was able to move another desk to the back of the classroom to be with them.

Here they all are with their new teachers:











After meeting the teachers and seeing the classrooms all of the children seemed even more excited. Rebecca and I were a little nervous for Elliott though. He had been counting down the days and I am sure he will really do great in school, it is just hard for us when one of our children has to start going to school - it means they are not longer a little kid.


The next morning we got up early and did our morning routine. It all went pretty smoothly and we were out the door by 7:15 am. Elliott was first in line to get on the bus and it was neat to see his hesitation when it came time to board, but his older siblings all helping him and supporting him.

Here they are doing some of their morning routine:

Scriptures


and jobs




Then at 9:30 am I got a call from the school. Apparently, kindergarten doesn't start until next week. Rebecca had been out working in the yard and so she hadn't heard the calls earlier than that. So from the time school started until about 9:30, Elliott just got to hang out in his classroom all alone with his teacher. I think he liked it a lot. I don't know how we missed that different starting date for him!


At the end of the day Julia, Ethan, and Christian all had positive things to report about their first day. I think this is going to be a really good year for all of them.

First day pictures:


We are going to count this as the "first day" picture for Elliott.









Oh, I forgot to mention that we tried to do some fun things on the day before school started. We tried to squeeze in several of the children's requests of activities that they wanted to do. Agnes wanted to go fishing, so we went out to the lake for an hour and a half right after my parents left from their visit. We also got in some Lego time, bow and arrows, and playing at the park.



And don't forget resting from a long summer break.