Adoption STAR Associate Director Michael Hill shares the story of his son’s first day of kindergarten. Please go to Adoption STAR’s Facebook page and share a picture of your child’s first day of school.
So yesterday was my oldest son Elijah’s first day of kindergarten. My husband and I had worked diligently these last few weeks to prepare Elijah for “the big day,” and several great school-related activities helped with this (such as a kindergarten play date at the school’s playground in mid-August and school supply drop off day the day before school started). As a result of all of this, coupled with going to our district’s UPK program last year, we were feeling as though Elijah was indeed ready for kindergarten.
The night before his first day of kindergarten, Elijah slept like a log (thank goodness). He got up around 6am without any difficulty. He ate a fine breakfast (Cinnamon Life and yogurt; two of this favorites) and got dressed pretty quickly. At about 7am, his grandparents starting rolling in. Elijah’s Nani, Grandma and Grandpa were excited to help walk Elijah to school (as our house is about a 5 minute walk from the elementary school he attends).
So, after taking a bunch of pictures on our front porch, a veritable parade of folks headed off to school – Elijah, his parents, his grandparents, and his little brother Seth.
Once we got to school, things got a little dodgy. Elijah made it very clear that he wanted us to walk him to his classroom (which was fine), but you could hear the anxiety in his voice while asking this question. It seemed to imply, “there is NO WAY I want to walk to my classroom by myself…even though you know and I know that I could do it if I had to, but I don’t want to.” So, his dads very willingly walked him to his classroom.
Once we got there, Elijah let out the nervousness he was feeling and started to cry. We hugged him tightly, reassured him that he was going to be okay, and that we were sure his day would prove to be a fun one. His kind teacher reminded Elijah that he had to hang his backpack up, take out any items inside, and come into his classroom. He did all of this, but through tears.
As we said our final goodbyes, I felt like I was in a state of shock. It didn’t seem real….even though it was happening right in front of my face. We walked down the hallway, met up with the grandparents and little Seth at the entry to the school, and we all walked back to our house.
Elijah took the bus home that afternoon, and his dads were waiting outside to greet him. As Elijah excitedly got off the bus, he ran up the driveway into my open arms and gave me a big hug. I excitedly asked, “How was your first day?” His response was a simple one – “my first day was awesome!”
Please go to our Facebook page and share a picture (and perhaps a little story) of your child (or children’s) first day of school! We’d love to see lots of pictures of beautiful Adoption STAR children as they headed back to school!