1st Day of School

I wrote about this a little bit in this post but wanted to give a few more details about Gabe's school this year. Gabe has a late June birthday. More obviously Gabe is a boy. Gabe is a perfectionist much like his Daddy. Because of all the above reasons we decided to send Gabe to Early Kindergarten this year instead of regular full day Kindergarten. For those who don't know Early Kindergarten is a program for young 5 year olds who may not be quite ready for all day regular Kindergarten. He goes every day in the afternoon. Gabe's preschool teacher last year told us at conferences that she always recommends summer birthday kids go to Early Kindergarten instead of regular. In my teaching experience I also could tell the summer birthdays as compared to the school year birthdays, those kids were just a tiny bit behind and seemed to struggle for much of the year. Also with him being a boy I didn't want him to always be the youngest in the class, the last to drive, the last voice to change, etc. Early Kindergarten covers material that regular Kindergarten does but at a slower pace more suited to younger kids. They use the same curriculum that the regular Kindergarten does just different activities. They assured us at the parent orientation that the kids don't get bored the following year in regular kindergarten because while they do use the same curriculum there are so many different lessons that come from it seldom are they the same. I've been second guessing our decision of course, when I see people I know whose kids are younger going to regular Kindergarten, when Gabe is driving me crazy that half day he is home:) but I don't think we will regret the decision to let him have that little bit of time advantage. So without further adiou here is my Early Kindergartner on the first day of school. He was getting in some Callie love before school as well. He was sooooo excited to ride the bus, I was a little teary but held it together until he was out of sight. So far he has loved school and is very happy to be riding the bus!