Ruby’s first day of First Grade today. I went in late to work so that I could go with Jen to drop her off. A lot of emotions—more so than when she started Kindergarten. On three fronts very hard:
--Sympathy. Fear of the unknown and new, starting off on a journey in which I don’t think children can understand. Starting school is like being woken up in the middle of the night to go on a car ride with a mysterious destination.
--Sadness. For so long every part of Ruby’s life was known, and mostly controlled, by us. Now, 6 hours of her life will be lost to us, ½ of her waking life, gone. Now we will have to become inquisitors to try and worm our way in. And this will just continue (unless, of course, we stick to our plan to home school her after Sixth Grade). And other people will be influencing her—giving her thoughts and ideas that we may not approve of, and it will be up to Ruby to integrate those into her universe.
--Apprehension. Have we prepared Ruby enough? Will she excel in school? Will she turn inward or blossom? Could we have done more, done it better? Jen and I have good intentions, but maybe we don’t always follow through. I hope, though, that we have instilled in her enough confidence to believe in herself and succeed.
The facts: Ruby’s teacher is Ms. Heyword, Room 12. She starts school at 8:50 and gets out at 3:10. There are 9 girls and 11 boys in her class. Jen stayed in Ruby’s class until time for the assembly, about 9:30. She said the teacher asked the class what “respect” means and Ruby raised her hand and answered, but she was very nervous when she talked, but gave a good definition nonetheless.
Before class we went to the coffee shop on Cobb Mountain. August was being a pain and wanting to crawl everywhere. Ruby had hot chocolate and a bagel. Emily and the girls came by and then Tammy and Lindsey. And then it was time to leave for school.
