(Transitional) Kindergarten

(I know school started eons ago and that I'm still way behind on these blog posts, but it's one of my New Year's resolutions to get caught up on this blog and stay caught up because I turn them into our family scrapbooks/journals, so I'm going to do it!)

Sophie started a Transitional Kindergarten class in September. It's transitional because she's an October birthday so she could've gone to regular Kindergarten this year, but we decided to let her wait one more year to go next year instead, and because the state has finally changed their cut-off date for Kinder to match the rest of the country (about time!), they are offering these transitional kindergartens for all the kids who have birthdays in the October to December window and who will be effected by this date change. (If you want a more in-depth explanation of what it is, I can give it to you.) Suffice it to say that we jumped at the chance to do a Pre-K type class for free rather than put Sophie back in another year of expensive pre-school, and we're so glad we managed to get her in!

I think it's safe to say that Sophie loves her class. She has enjoyed it from the start and is doing really well. She was so excited to pose for her first day of school pics and made sure I got a shot of her back pack that she was excited about, too. Pink and Princesses just about sum up Sophie's loves in life.

Here's her classroom. This Kindergarten class does all the same things essentially as the other Kindergarten classes, just at a less accelerated rate. At the end of it we could still opt to put her in 1st grade next year, but we think it'll be best to let her be older in her grade rather than so young, and we're trying really hard to look ahead to when she's a teen and not make her be the last to drive and date. Plus, I don't want her going off to college at 17! We feel good about our decision and she's over the moon about getting to do another year of Kindergarten next year, although it'll be at the school that's right next to our house. I can't wait to not have to drive her 15 minutes both ways twice a day anymore!

Her teacher, Mrs. H, is wonderful and a saint. She has 24 of these just-barely-5-yr. olds, most of whom are rowdy boys, and she definitely has her hands full. I've been volunteering in the class, though, and have been impressed with how she handles them all and what a great teacher she is.

Fortunately Sophie already knew 2 other kids in her class which helped with the 1st day jitters. Macy was in her pre-school class last year, and the other kid is a boy who is also in her class at church. It was nice for me to already know 2 other moms as well.

Oops, I guess this picture really didn't turn out. Sophie's name is up there somewhere!

One of the first days of school they had a t-shirt day where they all wore their favorite t-shirts and then colored a t-shirt of their real t-shirt and marched in a parade around the school. Sophie's choice was her pink (of course!) Tinkerbell t-shirt.

She thought she looked particularly cute on this day of school and begged me to take her picture on the doorstep for this day as well.

One of the unique parts about this kind of a class is that all the kids had their birthdays between Sept. 2nd and December 2nd. So poor Mrs. H had to endure one birthday party at school after another for 3 straight months. (And we got an invitation to someone's birthday party almost every single week, and sometimes 2 or 3 a week!) But the nice thing is that they're all done and she doesn't have to do anymore this year! Sophie asked me to bring Capri Suns and pink rice crispy treats (just like last year) for her birthday treat for her class.

This is her class on Halloween day. Sophie was Pippi Longstocking and nobody else in the class had ever heard of her, but some older kids at school and all the teachers sure knew who she was!

This is the class at their Thanksgiving celebration with the turkeys they made.

I love that Mrs. H always has them do a silly picture after the serious one, except that I do not like Sophie's face that she always pulls now whenever it's a silly picture. Not attractive in the least.

My favorite part about this picture is how Sophie is crossing her heart. She's not the only one to have it backwards, but she's the cutest one! (Oh, and a note about the boy next to her with the curly hair. Sophie told me that she asked him to be her boyfriend, and when I explained that we don't have boyfriends until we're in college, she replied, "Not for now, Mom! It's for when we're grown up!" I don't know how she ever heard about boyfriends, but I'm glad that at least she already figured out that you don't have them in Kindergarten! And I think the reason she picked him is because of his curly, blonde hair. I think he's adorable, too!)