First Grade

Today is Robin's first day of first grade. She has been excited and is very proud of her new uniform. The school uses a variation on the official (public school) uniform, substituting its own golf-style shirts for the white cotton button-down of the official uniform. More comfortable & less ironing...I'm for it!

The uniform calls for navy blue slacks. There are some differences in style & quality, depending where you buy them. We went to a department store that was recommended by a seamstress who makes uniforms (but had too many orders to do ours). We got there (unintentionally) just a few minutes after the store opened, so the place was empty and we went straight over to the well-stocked uniform section and got what we needed. Robin was thrilled to see that the girls' styles had a flared leg - not quite bell bottoms but, well, close. Fun to hem, lemme tell you. (I know it doesn't show up in the picture, and by the time I hemmed 4" up from the bottom there wasn't actually that much bell left in the bottoms anyway. But Robin knows it's there, and that's the important part.)

She was only a little nervous this morning, and it only lasted for a couple of minutes. When she transferred to this school last year she was excited like this at the beginning, then she had a harder time with nervousness & separation anxiety after a week or so. We'll be ready for that if it comes, but I don't really expect it this time around, since she's more familiar with the setup, and she knows all the other first graders and most of the teachers.

The first graders start today for some individualized time with the teacher, then the second and third graders come in on Friday. There will be a total of 24 in the 1st/2nd/3rd grade mixed classroom, with one teacher and one assistant. There were just 6 first graders there when we took Robin this morning, although I think there are a couple more than that in all - maybe they were just late.

School normally gets out at 3:00, but they only stay till noon this week. We'll go to Yolanda's house after school so she can show them her uniform and tell them about school. Plus Dad really wants some of Yolanda's gallo pinto (a rice & beans dish) and this is pretty much his last chance!