Nyah had been soooo excited to start Kindergarten all summer long. The day before the first day of school I thought Nyah would explode she was so done with the suspense. On the morning of the first day of school I set my alarm for 6am, just to give my self plenty of extra time to get ready. I was planing on letting Nyah sleep till 6:45 but as soon as I walked from my room Nyah can barreling out of her bedroom crying out "It's my first day of school!!!" Her eyes were not even all the way open and she almost ran into the wall, but her excitement took over!
Arriving at school was a little hecktic. The parking lot was totally full so we had to park at the bottom of a hill and walk a ways to get to the kindergarten yard. (Poor Sade, unable to keep up with her eager sister, got dragged the whole way up the hill :)
The first two days the parents are told that we can walk our kids into the play yard and stay with them until it is time for the kids to go into the class room. I was prepared for tears and clinging and even though she was excited I knew that all of it could turn very easily once the parting moment came. As we crossed the street and the play yard gate stood steps away, all these thoughts were rushing through my head. We step onto the side walk and my life changed.
Nyah lets go of my hand, and yells over her shoulder, "Ok, bye mom, I love you!" then darts for the fence! Sade and I chased after her to get hugs, good byes, and to watch her line up and walk to class but we were pretty invisible to her, she was too consumed with joy that Kindergarten was finally starting!
Where did her bravery come from? The first day of school couldn't have been more perfict. Nyah made friends on the first day and had lots to share with us. The second day I just drove up to the fence and let her walk in on her own. After her second day she told me that while the class was coloring a boy kept teasing her, in her words, "Mom, he said I was a 'sribbly scribbler'! He thought I was scribbling but I wasn't he was scribbling! It was so weird! I told him that I am not scribbling and that he was not being nice!" On another day a kid got pushed and Nyah told me, "I went and got the teacher right away because it is not nice to push!". Then yesterday when Nyah came home she told me, "We were coloring today and a boy said he liked my picture but he started making fun of Sophia. He told her that she was scribbling and that is not nice so I told him, 'You do not say mean things like that because it is not nice and you are not being a friend and if you keep saying that then people are not going to be friends with you!' "
Every day Nyah comes home thrilled about school and tells us all about the new friends she is making! We could not be more proud of Nyah, our big Kindergartener and defender of kindness!
Nyah (center) is off on her first Kindergarten adventure!