Beginner's Night

Tonight was Rebecca's Beginner's Night at her future (Ben's current) elementary school. Rebecca was very excited to go, but I had to remind her about 50 times that no, kindergarten does not start "after bed" (her way of saying "tomorrow"), but rather she has two months of preschool left and then summer camp and THEN kindergarten.

She separated from me very easily and was led off to a classroom by a parent volunteer, while I sat through the hour-long what-to-expect-in-kindergarten lecture which I am sure I paid far less attention to this second time around, except for the part where they reviewed the first week of school, because that is different now- now the kindergarteners attend for either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of the first week, during which time they are given bunches of assessments, before teacher assignments are made. This is to ensure that each classroom is as heterogenous as possible (apparently the year before last all the kids with behavior problems accidentally ended up in the same classroom). So we will not find out who her teacher is until Thursday of the first week of school, and then Friday we come in for a "meet and greet" with the kids at 8am and then leave them there for the rest of the day.

When I picked Rebecca up at the classroom I observed her spacily wandering around, apparently having finished the craft project early but giving the teacher a blank look when asked if she'd put her project outside in the hallway by the door, or if she still had it in the classroom. Then on the way out she informed me that the teacher was nice, "and doesn't even get mad when we fight."

"Who fought?" I asked, not liking the sound of this.

"I did. Me and a boy."

Oh great. "What? No fighting, fighting's against the rules in kindergarten."

"No, no" she insisted. "It's okay. We didn't get in trouble. The teacher just said how 'bout we walk away from each other."

Greeaaaat. Then on the way to the car she threw a tantrum because I said we didn't have time to visit the playground because we needed to get home to take a bath and get ready for bed. I tried, "Kindergartener's don't throw tantrums." But, she responded through howls with, "I am not in kindergarten yet! I am still a preschooler!" Sigh.