Thankful Thursday: Back To School Edition

Welcome to the back to school edition of Thankful Thursday.  Yesterday was Moo's first day of kindergarten and school period.  We both a bit of anxiety about this day, but for the most part I think overall I was more excited than anything else before her first day.  Moo was more on the nervous end.  Her biggest concern was that she wasn't going to be as smart as the other kids, but a reassured her that she was.

Her school doesn't started until after 9 o'clock.  I'm thankful for that because that means that we get to sleep in an extra hour and thirty minutes compared to other kids in our district.  One my friends has to be up before 6 AM to get her kid ready and out the door to catch the bus at 6: 30!  I'm also thankful that her school is literally two minutes from our place.  So, we could still make it to school on time if we oversleep a little bit past our alarm, but I've set two alarms just in case.

Moo's first day of school did NOT go well.  I'll post more about that this weekend.  I did take to my personal Facebook page to express my frustration over the situation that went down.  I'm glad that I did because it just proved what an awesome group of family and friends that we have.  I'm thankful for all the texts, comments and private messages I got.  Some with encouragement, others sharing their stories of how they had to deal with their children getting bullied as well.

I'm thankful that I have people I trust to reach out to for advice.  One of my best friends actually sent me the link to a great site called brainPop Jr.  It's a learning site and they have lessons on bullying.  I was grateful for that because I really want to ease Moo's mind about going back to school.  She didn't have school today and is terrified about going back tomorrow.

Moo has such a loving and compassionate nature and spirit.  My biggest fear is that too many negative experiences at this school is going to fracture that.  I know some parents are all about raising kids who are "hard" and rough around the edges, but I'm not.  Moo can handle a little teasing, because I've seen it happen with on playdates.  She knows how to properly standup for herself.

However, yesterday's event was past a little teasing.  I'm trusting my gut feeling and have made to decision to be extra active and visible at her school.  I don't play about my kids and am very disappointed with how the situation was handled.  We're determined that her first year of school will be a great one, even if that means having to unenroll her and place her somewhere else.  This is still the early stages, so we won't jump the gun.  The next 30 days though will determine whether or not she will continue at this current school or not.

Back to the positive, Moo did tell me that while none of the girls in her class would play with her, she was able to make three new friends from another class!  That's a plus.  She also brought home the first of many artworks that I can't wait to put up everywhere!  Yes, I'm that Mom.  We're going scrapbook shopping so that when we switch them out, we can have a place to save her old drawings.

In non-back to school news, I got a penpal!  Yes, I'm nerdy like that.  I love letter writing and meeting new people.  We've already started corresponding via email and we have tons of stuff in common.  There'll be a full post on that coming next week too.

What are you giving thanks for this week?  How was your kids' first day of school?