It's the First Day of School...are you ready?

Can you believe it's the first day of school?  I just don't know where those days of summer went!  I don't remember summers going by so quickly when I was a kid.  Were summers longer back then?  They couldn't have been that much longer, guess it's just because I'm older and can read a calendar now.


Since we've had three "first day of school" mornings for Patty you'd think I'd be a cool as a cucumber today but I gotta tell you I am a bundle of nervous this morning.  I could blame the computer for being uncooperative but the truth is this anxiety has been building since the end of May when Kindergarten ended and summer began. 

Why so anxious?  Well, we had hoped to have another appointment at Vandy during the summer but the waiting list is very long.  Why's that appointment so important?  In a nutshell, it'll be a concrete diagnosis of Patty's delay.  And we hoped that a diagnosis would help us decide if Patty was ready to move on to first grade. 

So, without the guidance of Vandy, we had one lingering question/concern all summer:  should Patty restart Kindergarten?  I asked absolutely everyone I came into contact with trying to find an answer.  I googled and read about it.  I made Pros and Cons lists.  I compared the things she should know to the things she did know.  And in the end I just wasn't sure what the right choice was.

As you've probably noticed from the photo, we did decide to restart Kindergarten.  It was not an easy decision.  But here's why we did it:  First, the school district on record for us was officially changed earlier this year, so Patty and Jt would be heading to a completely new school with bus transportation.  Second, first grade doesn't have an in class assistant, and Patty needs a lot of one-on-one help; each kindergarten has an in class assistant so we felt better about that.  Third, a new birthday cutoff will take place (not sure when) that bumps the October 1st cutoff back to August 1st.  So, if that rule were in effect last year, Patty wouldn't have turned five in time to start kindergarten making this her actual first year.  It'll take time to know if it was the best decision, but right now it feels right enough to make me happy. 

And I'm happy to report that, although she was a tad bit apprehensive, drop off went much better this morning than last year!  I did do the mad dash while she was distracted by the television, which I feel really horrible about.  But, I was in the car and driving out of the parking lot at 8:03 so I have set a new personal record.  Does that qualify for the gold medal?