Monday, September 19, 2011

Kindergarten: A Lesson in Letting Go...

August 15th, 2011

The day will go down in Harker family history for being Quinton's first day of Kindergarten!

Quinton was so excited to start school. Lucky for me, his school had a "Bridges" program, two weeks before school started. Bridges is a week of half-day kindergarten where the kids don't wear their uniforms and they get to know the school and what's expected of them. Bridges is optional but it was vital to me to have Quinton go since he hasn't been in a classroom setting since we moved here. What was really nice about the program is that Quinton's Bridges teacher was also his kindergarten teacher.


I say I was lucky for the Bridges program because that first day I dropped him off, I made it to the car and then the tears came! So by the time the first REAL day of the first FULL day of Kindergarten came along, I held it together remarkably well (I think)!


In getting ready for the big day, Matt shared a tradtition that he had when he was a kid and that was the back-to-school scarecrow. The "scarecrow" was made up of the clothes you wear on the first day of school. At first, when I heard that the entire Mobile, AL school system requires uniforms, I was totally bummed. I love shopping and dressing my boys and I felt like *my* creativity was going to be stifled. Four weeks into the school year, however, and I am ready to praise the geniuses who mandated school uniforms! Getting dressed everyday is SO easy! Quinton's hardest decision in the morning is what cereal to eat! Thank goodness!


Here is Quinton's first scarecrow!

I really wanted to celebrate the milestones in my boys' lives and and looking for ways to make traditions in our family. Here is the first day of kindergarten wakeup call...a family affair, as you can see. Matt insisted on staying home that morning so we could all accompany Quinton to school.
The most fun breakfast I could think of with Quinton's choice of pancakes & sausage...his favorite!

I also let Quinton pick out his own backpack and lunch bag and this is what he chose...


The ALWAYS classic picture in front of the door first day of school outfit!

Quinton, ready to learn!

I am so proud of him for being independent and curious! This should be an exciting year in his life and the rest of the family, too!

Go get 'em my little Hutchens Cardinal!

2 comments:

rachel said...

What a cutie! Sounds like you are making some fun traditions. I don't think I would mind uniforms. I especially like the tennis balls on the bottoms of all the chair legs. That isn't redneck at all :)

Kara and Theo said...

What a cute idea with the pancake!!

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