Are we really old enough to have a child going to school? I quickly became aware of the impact when I couldn’t schedule a morning mountain bike ride with friends. Audrey’s school starts around 7.30am which means we have to start her day earlier than she’s used to.

I made pancakes for breakfast and then Jeana took her to school. We went to a Back to School night at the school to meet Audrey’s teacher last Friday night. We really like her and the classroom. Kate was excited to play on the Kitchen toys that Audrey’s teacher had. I walked around the classroom with Audrey and Kate looking at all the pictures and displays on the walls. Audrey looked so ready to jump in and get going with school. We walked by a paper mounted to the wall that had the classroom and cafeteria rules on it. Audrey started reading the page out loud. I’m so proud of her for how well she reads.

I worked from home today so that I could be here when Audrey got home. Jeana and I watched out the windows for the bus to arrive so that we could run out and meet Audrey. Apparently there are multiple buses which service our neighborhood, so we were disappointed when the first bus we saw didn’t have our daughter on board. An hour after school was dismissed, Audrey’s bus arrived. The bus driver told Jeana that they had already been by once, but Audrey didn’t speak up to get off.

Audrey was a bit sad walking home from the bus because she wanted to walk home by herself. Maybe after a few days of figuring out when she’s supposed to get off.

I was full of questions and would have kept asking and probing if Jeana would not have reminded me to not overwhelm Audrey. As the night went on she told us more and more about what happened at school. Some kids got to play on the kitchen toys, some got to spend time on the classroom computer - reading on a site that Audrey has done at home: starfall.com.

Oh I forgot to mention how excited Audrey was when she discovered there was a library at her school! She blurted out, “I can use my library card at school!”