If you already didn’t know I love me some Instagram. I’ve become addicted since joining. This past week I’ve seen a lot of pics posted from our American friends with little ones heading back to school. While we still have a couple more weeks here before the start of school, it got me thinking about how prepped we are to start junior kindergarten.
That’s right, Violet is starting kindergarten!!!!!!!!! It’s crazy! But I’m so excited for her, and she seems to be excited too. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about school since registering in January and although I imagine the transition won’t be easy, I don’t think it’s going to be terrible either. For the past little while we’ve spent some time doing a few things that will hopefully help make for a successful transition.
First things first, we always talked about school with excitement. I remember last summer a little girl in the girls’s daycare who wasn’t looking forward to kindergarten because she was worried that the older girls would be mean. Between Chris, our caregiver and myself we’ve always talked about school as being a super exciting place where she’ll play and learn and make lots of friends and you can see Violet’s excitement about these things when she talks about school.
Lunches still have me a bit baffled for a couple of reasons: 1. We don’t do sandwiches often, if ever, and 2. The school has 2 “nutrition breaks” as opposed to a standard lunch.
When I first asked Violet what she wanted to eat for lunches I was told macaroni and cheese. While not completely impossible, the thought of having to prep, heat up and contain mac and cheese for lunch isn’t the most appealing. We began talking about sandwich options and we agreed that turkey and cheese sandwiches, no salad (lettuce) were good. So we’ve started making them and the sandwiches have been well received.
As for dealing with the nutrition breaks, I did a bit of research. Some of the school boards provide some great suggestions. In the end, I’ve decided to try snacks like fruit and yogurt for the first nutrition break and treat the second nutrition break more like lunch with a sandwich.
As we get ready to transition we’ve been working a lot on independence. This has been one of the hardest things. Our girls are used to just saying “I can’t do it” and we do it for them. Yes, I know this is completely our fault, but honestly it’s just easier sometimes to avoid complete meltdowns. Using a lot of positive reinforcement has really helped with this from getting her own shoes on to using the bathroom independently.
Finally, we’ve reviewed all the forms and information the school sent out over the summer and are using that as guidance for what she’ll need to have with her at school. We haven’t bought new clothes yet, apart from her first day attire, as all of her clothes still fit. Besides, you know the sales start after the kids go back to school. Might as well wait to make use of some discounts before stocking up for the winter.
September is ushering in an entirely new experience for all of us. I’m sure we’ll all be nervous and it will take some time to get used to, but it really is an exciting time. Of course I won’t forget to take the mandatory first day of school picture. I’ve already downloaded some printables we can use to document the milestones!
Do you have little ones starting JK soon or have you already done this? What do you recommend we do before and as the school year starts?
