first grade transition

i wanted to capture a great picture for pooka's first day of school, but things were not cooperating. first it was her hair and the hats on the bedpost:


then it was the refractions off the taillight and license plate. who knew it could be so hard to get a decent picture?


so i'm stuck with these, because you only get one two chances to take a first day of school picture.

she had a great first week, anyway. we met her teacher tuesday night, which was a great relief to me. i didn't want her going in without any prior knowledge. i was worried that she wouldn't know where to go or what to do on the very first morning. her teacher is very nice (even if she is a sparty) and still has that shiny luster--fresh from the teacher factory. that oughta wear off after a few months with some crazy 6 year olds.

pooka loves being able to ride on a bus. i don't remember if i ever felt quite as strongly about that as she does. i think i preferred to be driven, but had to ride the bus.

she also loves the idea of buying lunch at school. this is also different from my childhood. i was always a hot lunch kid, until i was old enough to pack my own food. i envied the other children whose parents packed lunches into awesome lunchboxes for them. kisu and i think it's cool that on the rare occasions when she will buy hot lunch, we can load up an online account for her and don't have to worry about having cash on the spot or her losing it. and apparently they have a fruit and veggie bar they can access to get sides for their entree. that's pretty cool. i was worried about the kind of food they'd have at school. hearing news stories about pop machines and candy in cafeterias made me nervous. by packing lunch, i have greater control over what she eats (assuming she doesn't trade it away for junk) and also the school has a morning snack time, which snack must be either fruit or veggie. pooka eats healthy and school officials get to be the 'bad guy'.

so far she has experienced gym class and music class and she loves the novelty of it. we'll see if it wears off.

the latchkey program is working out well, too. it's not quite as riotous as we imagined. the adults do supervise and provide designated areas for either homework, quiet play, or energy-burnoff. they also provide a basic breakfast (toast or cereal) and an afternoon snack (more traditional munchies). excellent!

the only difficulty we're facing is tardiness, as per usual. still trying to get everyone taken care of in one vehicle. the first day we tried, we had late pickups for both kids; the second day pooka was on time, but bug was late (by a mere minute). we're still fine-tuning, obviously. i'm convinced that we will have to take two cars once the snow arrives, but hopefully we can continue to carpool for the next 2 months or so.

next week, kisu and i face the next big step in parenting an elementary school kid: pto. we intend to participate, but we need to figure out what level of involvement we can handle. i think we'll alternate attending the monthly meetings and see what kinds of opportunites are available after that.