Yesterday was a last day of summer break. I and my daughter decided to celebrate. I invited my daughter’s friend over to our house so they would have a last chance to catch up before the schools starts. We went to the park, had a JamboJuce and organic hamburgers. It was fun!

Today is a first day of school. Yea! New teacher, a few new classmates and the happiness of seeing her old friends. While my daughter was setting up in the new classroom I was having some coffee and bagels in the lobby and talking to the parents. After that we all went to the assembly.

I love the assemblies in Kristina’s school. They are always sweet, entertaining, and very interactive. Everybody has a chance to talk and share: the staff, the teachers and of course the students. Today’s topic of sharing was “goals for the next year”. These are few of them; maybe your child can use them too. I love them all!

•    Read more
•    Write more
•    Make more friends
•    Be a better friend
•    Recycle
•    Train the attention muscle
•    Have more fun
•    Exercise more
•    Listen better
•    Pay more attention to the teacher

Have a great school year!

I’ll never forget my daughter’s first day of school. She had never been in daycare, was babysat infrequently, and I was worried about my baby girl!!

Even preschool had been skipped because she didn’t qualify in our town, so the kindergarten with its bunch of social, rowdy kids had me concerned she would be knocked over and her feelings hurt - and I was sure she wasn’t going to want me to leave her there! We had never been apart!

Wow, was I surprised. Not only did she take off from my side like a bullet when she saw kids her own age, she didn’t even notice when I left - and I was the one sitting crying in the parking lot. She didn’t want the fun to end at the end of the day either, and I had to pry her off of her teachers legs when I picked her up!

My son was a different story. He started worrying about school from an early age, and I ended up taking him to a half a dozen vacation bible schools the summer before he started pre K to try and get him used to other kids. The pre K offered a half day for him in the town we had moved to, so we went with that option as well.

He was OK, didn’t cry or get freaked out, but you could tell it took a toll on him by the way he would come home and conk out for a three hour nap after school! He is my shy one, just the reverse of our daughter (who is very social), so we have had to make sure we handle each one a little differently.

I have no idea what my third will be like - he is different than the other two already, so I expect I will have my hands full with him!  He is only 15 months old, but already we can see he inherited my temper along with my red hair, so I can see we may have quite a time learning to get along with others!

Just pay attention to your kids and make sure you walk them through any anxiety they may have - then the first day of school will feel safe for your timid children, and be a blast for the outgoing ones!

Sarah P.