I thought it would be so much easier when I didn’t have one enrolled in preschool. After all, I wouldn’t have to make a midday trip out to drop them off or pick them up two or three days a week. Truth was, I was simply closing my eyes to reality, plugging my ears with my fingers, and singing “la la la la la!” Because, of course, as is obvious to probably everyone reading this, things are actually even crazier with a child in half-day kindergarten.
Sure, the kids can walk to and from school. But for now either Joel or I is walking with them, at least until Branwen gets comfortable with the idea of walking to and from with just Alexis. Since they just have to cross the playground the time may come for me to just wait for them at our gate before the end of the year, but I certainly am not counting on it. It’s hard to know when Branwen will be ready for that. In the meantime, we take Alexis to school around 8:45, come home and finish feeding and clothing any children who are still hungry and pajamaed, do a few random things that won’t take more than an hour or so, start getting Branwen ready, take her to school at 11:45, go home and feed the once again hungry children at home, put the two littlest down for a nap and sit downstairs with the 3 year old while she watches a video for quiet time (she’s not used to being alone and doesn’t much like it), then go get Alexis and Branwen at 3:30. And instead of being two or three days a week, we have this lovely schedule every single day! Granted, some of that will have to be flexible. For instance, Desta is going to have to live with watching the video by herself at times when I just have far too much to do to sit down here with her. I can sit down here if I have paperwork or something to do, but cleaning and cooking generally require me to be in a different room. Well, we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.
The first day of school went well. Branwen, though she announced to me that she didn’t like Kindergarten and it wasn’t fun, was not screaming or crying. I consider this a huge success. I don’t care if she loves Kindergarten straight off (her tune actually changed a bit later anyway to something like, “It was ok,”) as long as she doesn’t scream and cry for mommy from the time I drop her off till the time I pick her up thereby allowing no learning in her particular sector of the building. I figure she’ll have tired days when she’s harder to drop off, but it’s very encouraging that she had such a calm first day. Maybe she’s starting to get over this fear of new situations/transitions thing! (I guess we’ll test that a bit on Sunday when she goes to her new Sunday School class.)