It was really nice that she had a "practice day" yesterday. We met her teachers, and Vivian explored her classroom and saw where she would be keeping her things. The teacher had up a display of Mo Willems books, which was a big hit with Vivi. She just plopped right down and started reading them, so she definitely felt at home. We also got to meet two of her fellow students, one of whom is Israeli like my mom and the other who has the same name as one of Vivi's cousins. What are the odds?? I took it as a good omen.
This morning, when the bus showed up, she was so excited she just ran to get on, and I had to call out twice to get her attention and demand my good bye hug. I'm glad she's independent, but I still need my hug! The "bus" system is completely ridiculous. The transportation is actually vans, and the pick up system has NO logic to it whatsoever. Prime example, I met my new neighbors today because the bus picked up Vivi and drove off. My neighbor and her second grade daughter came out looking upset wondering where the bus went. Luckily, the all knowing Facebook had prepared me for this, and I told her that lots of people had noticed multiple buses coming down their street yesterday. We decided to give it five more minutes before freak out, and sure enough, a couple minutes later another van arrived to pick up her daughter.
The same kind of thing happened this afternoon. I was outside waiting for Viv to get dropped off. The bus stopped in front of my house, and they took off my neighbor's child and tried to give her to me (the bus attendants are Thai and smile a lot, but I don't know how much English they speak). I pointed to the house next door to show that she lived there. Luckily the girl is pretty self-sufficient and just started walking home. A few minutes later the bus with my kid showed up. The initial bus info we got said that bus routes would probably change in the first few weeks of school. I hope they do, because someone is paying for an incredibly inefficient system.
When I asked Vivi how her day went she said, "I had THREE recesses!" In her mind, this made it a good day. To clarify, after the bus drops her off at school, she gets to play until school starts. Then in the morning they have snack and recess, and in the afternoon they get to play outside before lunch. Lunch is included and the kids get to self-select in the cafeteria. I was a little worried about this, but she told me that for lunch she had soup with noodles, and then carrots and corn from the veggie bar, which sounds fine to me.
After asking some questions over her after school snack, I managed to piece together that they played name games, had three read alouds, and a spelling assessment ("with cardboard so we couldn't see each other") in the morning. In the afternoon, she had Thai class (more name games) and library for specials. Apparently the librarian not only read them a book, but also sang them a song accompanied by a "small thing like a guitar", ukulele maybe? After that they did "math" (no details provided) and then had free time during which she and one of her new friends performed what sounds like the world's most epic animal puppet adventure. She told me they are planning a sequel for tomorrow.
All in all she loved her first day of school and still had enough energy to have play dates with our neighbors on either side this afternoon. I finally gave her the iPad, because while she was at school I walked 6K this morning with a neighbor, and Vivi may have endless energy, but I'm done for the day.
Tomorrow is a PE day, so she's going to wear her other uniform and hopefully have another great day.
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