maya and her first day of school

So how was Maya's visit to school?

Pretty freakin' awesome.

I mean it was Maya, so it was not without it's trials, but they were all relatively cleared up in short order. We got to the school about 20 minutes into the open house once ML and I had dispensed our kids off on the bus and gathered our own crap together. The place was freakin packed already. I picked up my number, you know just like at the deli.... number 7 now being served. I was number 12 and I think they were at number 5 when we got there.

Our duty as Council reps was to hang out by the doors and hand out the sheet that explained all the different stations or storefronts at the open house and chat up the parents.

And how did Maya do as we worked our way around the different storefronts?

The Registration Centre: Manned by our Office Administrator. It went relatively quick, since we already have a kid in the school so we could skip all the "stuff you need to know stuff" like social history visits and staggered school start dates. Maya stayed for about 30 seconds of the process and then wandered back over to the play doh table.

Meet The Principal: Maya flat out refused to talk to the principal or draw a picture while I talked to the principal or accept the gift of free crayons. Yay, off to a great start. As for me the Principal mentioned that our JK enrollment this year is high enough that it *may* require a blended JK/SK class and asked our preference for MyPie. I gave my okay for Maya to be placed in the blended class if necessary.

Meet The Teacher: We did a bit better with this. Maya was still settling in and adjusting to the controlled chaos that was the kindergarten room that morning. She did speak to her teacher and showed off her mad name writing skills. The teacher let Maya pick out a story book to take with her, a little gift from the school.

Meet the Speech Pathologist: I talked with her briefly about Maya's lisp. Maya of course refused to speak so the pathologist could actually hear the lisp, but we did eventually get her to make her 's' sound. The pathologist didn't seem to concerned after finding out that neither Mike or myself lisped as children. She did mention that they expect children to have mastered the 's' sound by the age of 6, but they'll take a look at her when she starts school.

View a video About the Kindergarten Program: I'm not going to lie to you I'm not sure if one was even playing. Between talking to the teacher, principal & pathologist and hanging out with ML I didn't even notice.

Meet our Safety Officer: Maya wanted no part of this at all when we got there. Community volunteers were there finger printing children. After Maya acclimatized to the situation she agreed to go over with ML.

Allow Your Child To Do Kindergarten Activities: This is pretty much where she stayed, playing with the Play Doh.

Learn About the Early Years Program: I didn't even stop by here. I'm very confident that Maya is ready for school.

The last half hour of the open house Maya spent with ML with her reading group. ML volunteers on Fridays to help out with a group of kids who need some extra reading help. Maya thought it was very cool she got to tag-a-long. ML even took her past Abby's classroom so she could say hi, which thrilled both the Abster and MyPie beyond measure. All the while I was doing my best Cinderella imitation and helping clean up after the open house.

So yeah, pretty freakin' awesome. Maya was not impressed to hear that she won't be going back to school for months, though. Poor little thing. To celebrate our great morning we grabbed lunch out with ML and then a mini shopping spree at Michael's where I planned out what to buy with my gift card. Hello, cake decorating turn table at 40% off next week. I'll be back to see you, then.