Dis-oriented

Charlotte starts kindergarten in a week.  A week! 

I’m not ready!  Not that I’m not ready for her to be apart from me during the day—she’s been in full-time daycare since she was 4 months old.  But this is different.

My husband and I attended a kindergarten parent orientation last night.  We met the teachers, and the principal.  They went over in more detail how drop-off and pick-up works, how lunchtime works (they have an optional hot lunch, meal “debit card” system, and the kids can buy ice cream if we let them), answered uniform questions (she can wear tennis shoes with their “warm weather” shorts uniform until October, but must wear the blue uniform shoes whenever she wears her jumper).  In theory, we are ready for school.

But we still have so much to do.  I need to send a health form to the pediatrician, and she needs gym shoes.  And soccer shoes.  We have to decide which of 3 pickup locations at school that she’ll need to go to at the end of the day, and update the school’s records with my husband’s car make and model, and my new license plate number.  And her birthday is in a little over a week, so we have cupcakes to make for daycare, a birthday party, another treat to send to kindergarten.  I think her first soccer practice is on her birthday.

And we have to label her school supplies.  I thought it was a joke when someone said “label every crayon.”  Apparently not.  I hope we have a backup sharpie.

Her official school open house is next week, where Charlotte can go explore her classroom and meet her teachers.  There are two for her class.  There are a couple of “team” teachers in this school—it’s a kind of job-sharing plan.  Char will have one teacher before lunch, and another in the afternoon.  I think the arrangement will work out nicely, and Char is used to having more than one teacher throughout the day from preschool.

Along with the changes for Char, I’m changing my work schedule around.  I’ll be arriving early—by 7am (in theory), so that I can leave by 3ish to pick her up from school  My husband’s work won’t change, but he’ll have to leave the house by 7ish to drop Trystan off at his regular daycare, and then take Char to school between 7:45 and 8.  I’ve tried out the early-morning thing this week.  Its rough, but I do get a bit more time with the kids in the evening, so it will have an upside.

All this change is so unsettling.  I guess things will calm down once we hit our stride.