Samantha's first blog

Posted By pamelamyers on June 15, 2015

Today we took Sam to kindergarten for Kinder Kub Hub. It is a day when the kids enrolled in kindergarten get to come and visit the school and the parents get a bit of information. Sam was nervous and excited at the same time. I think she wants to go to kindergarten really badly, but she is scared too because it’s a new school and she doesn’t know what to expect. She got very comfortable at St. Matt’s not only with the people, but the building in general. She felt at home there and the prospect of starting that all over is daunting.

That morning, I took her to the gym with me and dropped her in the Kid Club care area while I worked out. She loves it there – but, honestly, what kid wouldn’t – it’s full of toys, games, crafts and whatnot to keep them amused. She loves seeing all the other kids who are there and chatting up a storm. On this particular day, she left telling me that the little girl she was playing with said she was going to see her new kindergarten today too. I told Sam that she may not see her there since there were a number of Kub Hub sessions that day, but you never know.

When we arrived, sure enough, there was her new little friend! Ashley was her name and Sam was so happy to see her. Not long after that, Toby, a boy from her St. Matt’s class, came in with his mom. I was glad that Sam saw some familiar faces to ease the experience. It was funny. She wanted to show Ashley some of the things she found in the library (where we were all assembled) but Ashley was being shy and scared and wouldn’t separate from her mom. Sam didn’t understand why. It was not that long ago that Sam would have been the one clinging to me, and now she was the adventurous one. I was quite proud of her and how far she has come.

We took some picture of Sam in the library of her new school! She picked out her outfit herself. I think she looks amazing!

Sam loved seeing so many books, and the tiny little chairs. There are a number of stuffed animals that are book characters on the shelves and Sam loved seeing Splat the Cat, one of her favorites!

We also found Pigeon, of the Mo Willems books. Sam recently discovered those when they read one at St. Matt’s. We have all of the Pigeon books now.

Soon enough, it was time for the kids to be led off to their classroom while the parents went to another. We got a lot of information from the principal about their philosophy, teaching style, and such as well as some practical info about pick up and drop off, school supplies and the home and school association. One thing they made sure to tell us is the answer to the question they say they get most often – what does my child have to know to be ready for kindergarten? According to the principal – they have to be 5 years old by the cutoff date, that’s it. Well…it was reassuring to some extent, since I am always worried that Sam is not ready yet, but I couldn’t help but think, let’s be serious, some kids are clearly more ready than others intellectually. But Sam will be fine, I know it.

At the end, the kids were led out onto the playground where we picked them up. Sam sees the playground when we drive past the school all the time so she was happy to finally get to play on it. When we got home I asked her how it was and she said it was great. I asked her what they did and she told me about the hearing test and some sort of eye test, as well as when they asked her to cut things out and color. All these things were obviously some sort of quick evaluations but all Sam knew is she had fun. Which is just perfect. Now, we wait until the end of August to see what class she is in (a.m. or p.m.) and who her teacher is. Hopefully, some kids from St. Matt’s will be in her class, but if not, Sam will do great, I have no doubt.

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