Kindergarten

Emily was super excited for her first day of Kindergarten. She was all smiles all morning. In the photo below, she is actually trying to keep herself from smiling, but she can't do it. :)

I wasn't sure how it was going to go once we actually got her to the classroom, but she did great. You can see some of the Montessori materials behind her. She was thrilled because her classroom has two birds, fish, and a cozy little loft that only 5-year-olds are allowed to use. The Kindergarten classroom includes more than just Kindergarten kids, so there are some younger kids, too. I think this is really good for Emily, and gives her an opportunity to feel like one of the "big kids" for once.

Abigail needs to be at school at 8:30am, but Emily's class doesn't start until 9am, so she spends a half hour in before care in the mornings. On the first day, this meant that she was without Abbie and that we were going to leave her with people that she didn't know. As luck would have it, there was another little girl (also 5, I believe) who was in the exact same situation. The girls instantly clicked. Emily grabbed the little girl's hand and they walked off together as if they were best buds. Pretty cute.

Abbie and Emily are taking sports classes together this year. They do sports-specific training on Mondays and tennis on Thursdays. Again, this has been a great transition for Emily - having her big sister there to watch out for her.

I bought them matching tennis outfits, and they both really like being together at school, seeing each other at lunch and recess. Its just been really great for both of them. Also new this year, Emily has started violin lessons. I think (in retrospect) that she is a bit too young for it, but she wanted to start and Mrs. Perry is just going very slowly with her. It'll be fun (probably years from now) if the girls can actually play a song together.

Slowly, but surely, I think that Emily is making progress with her letters and numbers. She seems to be getting the idea of sounding out words, etc. As for numbers, last night before bed she decided to count to infinity. As she got into the hundreds (with some help) she said, "110 . . .111 . . . googol?" I said, "No, I think that there are a few numbers between 111 and googol." She said, "Ok, I'll count all night. I promise." :)