Tessa's Kindergarten Year

Wow! Having two in school is both stressful and nice. Keeping up with two different school schedules is always crazy, but having half the kids gone for the day is also quiet and helpful for daily activities/responsibilities. I love Kindergarteners though. They are always so excited, and yet look so little still. I was more involved during the school year with Tessa's class, so it was fun to be known by the other kids in her class as "Tessa's mom."  Here she is after finding her name during the Meet the Teacher Night.

 

Of all my kids, I was the most nervous for Tessa to start school thinking she would have the hardest time being away from me because she can be shy, but her first day was awesome. She knew one girl from church in her class, so I think that helped and I was so proud of her and how she did. After that first week of school, their were a few mornings where Tessa had a hard time leaving me. (I would walk her in until the bell for school would ring.) Those mornings, I would have to leave her whining and screaming while her teacher pulled her into the room, but once I knew she would be fine after I left, it got better. Also once I started just driving through the drop-off line in the mornings, that helped a ton too. So there were a few rough times which I think are to be expected for a kindergartener, but overall she had a great year.

 

 

Here are the pictures showing Tessa's first day and last day. She really loved school as you can tell from her cute smiles in both pictures.

 

The kindergarten field trip was in October when they visited a pumpkin patch. I drove with a couple other moms and was able to be there to help chaperone and play with the kids. They had so much fun. Besides riding the wagon to pick out a pumpkin, they also got to ride slides, push big tires, go through tunnels, and do other activities that they had available there. It was a ton of fun.

 

This picture is taken with Romni, who is the girl from our church. They became fast friends as soon as we moved here and found out they were in the same class at church and at school.

 This was the best picture I was able to get with the entire class. It was a super cute place to take a picture, but getting that many kindergarteners to sit still and look at you was not an easy task. 

We were able to attend many of Tessa's PE days through the Wellness Walk Wednesdays as well. She loved having her mom and little sisters there. She especially loved to show off her baby sister, Taryn. And Aubrey loved playing with all the kids and fitting in with them easily. They would do their exercise routines for all the parents and they all loved dancing and showing off their moves and getting the moms to join in too.



 I was able to eat lunch with the girls quite a few times as well. That was always fun. The kids loved having moms there to talk to, and also to have them help open lunch items. During November, the kids were able to dress up as a Pilgrim or a Native American while they learned about Thanksgiving. They looked adorable in their outfits.

 

 Their last day of the first half of school was their Christmas/Pajama Party. They had pizza, a chocolate fountain, and got to play games and do crafts. It was fun to see them and we spent most of the time in Tessa's class as they played games and ate food. This was a much better picture of their entire class.

The Kindergarten Program was in March. They were so excited to perform. I thought Tessa would be nervous to be on stage, but she wasn't; and they all did a great job. It was the entire Kindergarten class singing songs about things they had learned like the alphabet, counting, and animals and colors. They even sang a song in Spanish, since half of the classes are dual-language. It was really cute. Here they are getting lined up and ready in the library.

 

Tessa was next to one of her new best friends, Peyton, who moved in during the second half of the year. Again, we were far back in the audience, so not very good close up shots, but she was in the front row, so it wasn't too hard to see her as they were performing.

 

During the last day of school, the Kindergarteners had a fun field day. I was able to get a babysitter (siblings weren't allowed) and help out during the day. It was a lot of fun. They had bounce houses, a huge parachute, bouncy ball and water game races among other activities. I took a ton of pictures, but here are just a few. 

 

Another good friend Tessa made in her class was Bianca, who happens to live down the street from the new house we bought at the end of the school year. Tessa loves being able to just run down the sidewalk and play with one of her friends from school.

Here are the best pictures I could get with the entire class with their teacher, Mrs. Garcia.

Whenever I talked to Mrs. Garcia about Tessa, she would just rave on how adorable Tessa was and how she was always happy, smiling, and willing to help. I love hearing those things about my girls when they are away from me. Even the other moms who were in the classroom more often than me would comment about how cute Tessa was and always happy. It made me so happy to hear that.

 And I finally was able to get one with Tessa and Mrs. Garcia. We LOVED her as Tessa's teacher. She was great and Tessa thought she was the best teacher ever. Once Tessa heard Abby's teacher was moving up and could possibly have Abby again, Tessa was wishing that she could have her teacher again next year too. She loved her that much.

 

The one funny story from her Kindergarten year involves almost getting into trouble. I went to pick her up after school one day and Mrs. Garcia said she had to talk to me about something that happened involving Tessa during PE. Apparently she had been playing house with some of her classmates and she and a boy who were playing the "mom" and "dad" had kissed; and because the entire class saw and told their teacher as soon as they came back inside, they had to address it and write it up. I was supposed to get a call from the Principal regarding it because that's their policy, but I never did, so I guess they figured what I did - that it was Kindergarteners at play. But we (especially Dad) had many talks right after that with Tessa about boys and kissing and pretend play and all that. It was more funny to me than anything, but it's a story I figured needed to be remembered from Tessa's first year at school.

 

Tessa's Kindergarten year was a huge success. She loved her teacher, her classmates, and her school. She picked up reading quickly and loves to read to her younger sisters. She listens in on Abby's math practices and has picked up a lot of addition already from that. Without having any kind of organzied pre-school I was more worried about her and schooling, but she did awesome and loves to learn. So happy the girls love school still. We hope that lasts for many years to come!

 

Congratulations on completing Kindergarten Tessa!