Kindergarten, Here We Come!

Today was Brandon's first day of kindergarten. My baby boy! I guess I'll need to drop the "baby" part from that last phrase, now that my boy's a big kindergartner. I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that Brandon's almost 5, and now in kindergarten.

He's in the afternoon class, which runs from 11:45 to 2:30 five days a week (yes, it's less than 3 hours a day. No, I don't know why. Seems to be a Colorado thing. Every mother I've talked to thinks this is the most ridiculous kindergarten schedule they've ever heard of!). I chose the afternoon kindergarten class for a couple of reasons:

#1 - Selfishly, because it means that I still get to keep my morning mom activities, like a weekly bible study and MOPS. I'll have to leave everything early in order to get him to school, but at least I still get to go. The morning class is from 7:55 to 10:45 am. Besides grocery shopping, there is nothing I could do during that time frame at all. Most stores don't even open until 10:00 or 10:30 around here. Even Costco would be a challenge.

#2 - more relaxed mornings. I'm not a morning person, and neither are my kids. We won't be rushing to get out of the house by a quarter to 8:00 this year to get to school. Next year will be different, but this year I get a breather!

Brandon was all excited about going to school. We've received a lot of going to kindergarten books, and the kids in the books are nervous and/or sad about going to school. Brandon thought he should be, too. In reality, he was so ready to go, and we were ready for him to go. I'm looking forward to PE next week. He needs to get out all that boy energy bottled up inside. As you can see from the photos, there's not a hint of sadness about going to kindergarten. He was rearing to go!

I'm excited about the school. I've heard that they are very academically focused. How that translates in kindergarten, and how they do that in less than 3 hours per day, I don't know. Brandon is trying so hard to read, so that will be a good measure of achievement for me. But he's excited, and wants to learn. I'm glad. And, quite honestly, I'm ready for him to be at school 3 hours a day. More time for me, and Caitlin.