First Day!

This morning, August 12, 2013, Nora began her first day of Kindergarten at Paideia Academy.  She was so excited, and seems to have had such a great day.  Although she was only there for half a day, getting up before 7:00 am and getting back into the swing of school has worn my girl out as she is taking herself a nice, long nap!

As I discussed a few months ago, we are starting Nora at a new school this year and have re-entered her in Kindergarten.  Basically, she was a very young Kindergartener last year having a late August birthday, and Paideia has a very different curriculum/method of learning from what we did at our other school.  So, we basically figured we have nothing to lose by having her do Kindergarten again (plus we get another whole year with our girl!).

Last year, I was super emotional as we sent both Nora and Liam to school for the first time.  For several weeks (maybe even months), I felt like a part of me was missing the hours they were in class.  My heart wasn't whole while they were gone, but that feeling got better and letting them go a little bit got easier.  This year, I don't feel that too much, and I am just so excited for all that this year holds for both of them academically.  Liam starts Pre-K next Monday, and this coming Friday we will go meet his teachers and classmates.

Here are a few pictures of Nora this morning as Liam, Stella and I walked her to class for her big day:

Getting out of the car.  (Shhh, but I think we may have worn a wrong version of the uniform on the first day!  Oh well!)

This is her first time wearing a uniform.  At first, she was aghast at the thought, but now she likes it.  I personally can't get over the knee socks.  Too cute!

At her desk!  In her brown paper bag are 5 things about herself that she packed to share in front of the class today.  She packed her white stuffed kitty (a favorite), a Littlest Pet Shop character (one of her favorite toys to play with), paints (because she wants to be an artist), a picture of our family at the beach, and her goggles (because she loves to swim).

Getting ready to start her first morning activity: drawing a self-portrait on the first day.  You'll notice her name and alphabet chart on her desk.  She'll be learning the D'Nealian form of handwriting this year to prepare her for future cursive writing.

Stella wishing her big sister a great first day!  Liam refused to participate in the picture taking this morning.

 Don't you just love that face!

I'm so proud of my big girl.  Tomorrow marks a big day as it's our first day of homeschool days with Paideia, and we have co-op at our church.  Like last year, I will homeschool Nora on Tuesdays and Thursdays in conjunction with what she learns in class on MWF.  Miss Jones, Nora's teacher, sends home lesson plans for me to follow each day, so planning won't be as much for me this year.  However, I did take a look at what we've got going on tomorrow, and we will definitely be busy.  

Nora will also be taking ballet on Tuesdays this year, and both Nora and Liam will be taking a Reading Connections class at our CCK Co-op.  Tuesdays will be super busy over here!

I'll keep you posted on our progress and update after Liam's first day next week.  Hard to believe summer is over already!