The First Days of Grade School

Today was the first day of school for our school district. It's funny to me when I look at how our children reacted to the first day of school in regards to what grade they're in. For Harper starting Kindergarten, the first day of school is intimidating, a bit scary, and really exciting! She came home with a new friend and talked about her first time doing school things. It appears to have worn her down quite a bit as dinner time was accompanied by some obvious signs of tiredness.

For Nolan starting 3rd grade, it's a pretty good change going from 2nd to 3rd grade in the amount of responsibilities he has, but he probably doesn't know that yet. He was able to experience this teacher that is new to him and possibly meet some other kids that he hasn't quite met yet. Maybe he has class with some old friends and maybe he'll make a couple new ones. All in all, it's not much different than before, but at the same time there are new experiences to have.

For Riannah starting 5th grade, it's really not much different. She either has her friends in her class or she doesn't. There isn't much chance of making new friends as by 5th grade, most of a child's friends are set unless someone moves into the area or the kids move into Junior or Senior High when they meet kids from other Elementary schools. School is school and learning simply advances past 4th grade with little changes other than difficulty. Her day probably feels exactly like they did last year and she gets that "it's school" look on her face. I can tell she enjoys being at school instead of home during the day as home was starting to get boring, but now it's time to learn.

For Christopher starting 12th grade, well, I'm sure he's just anxious to get it over with so he can move on to college and adulthood. Yay, adulthood! (:-p) Adulthood is overrated...

Needless to say, the first day of school went well and Harper is excited to go back tomorrow. Although they won't admit it, I'm sure Nolan and Riannah are too as their friends are at school since they don't live in our neighborhood. I wasn't really tickled pink when the kids fell back into their annoying each other habits as we drove to their special "first day of school" dinner, but what should I expect? They're still siblings and when school is over for the day, it's back to home to the same old thing.

Oddly enough, I don't remember any of my first days of Grade School. I don't remember my parents ever taking pictures and I don't ever remember the excitement of going back to school. This could be because my friends lived in the same neighborhood as I did, or it could be that I just don't remember it. I'm sure there was excitement in there somewhere...

It'll be interesting to see how each of our children reacts to the first day of school next year since I've now written a vague briefing on what their first day was like this year.