Kindergarten - part 1 (of many)

We have a rising 1st grader on our hands! School starts on Monday so I thought it was high time I write about Elias' first year of "real school." I was going to write one epic, photo-heavy post but have decided instead to write a multi-part series of posts all about Kindergarten. First up, first day:

Obligatory posed pictures solo and with various family members:

Elias has changed and grown quite a bit in the past year, but man, so has his little sister!

The entire fam' accompanied Elias to school that first day:

We lingered after drop-off for a few additional shots - his cubby for the year:

Elias at his seat, waiting for his first day to begin:

He moved groups once or twice over the course of the year. Overall that first day wasn't nearly as emotional for me, or for him, for that matter, as I thought it might be. And that doesn't surprise me, about Elias at least. So far he's been very matter-of-fact when it comes to transitions like this, not getting too emotional about the transition from daycare to preschool, or from preschool to Kindergarten. He talks about past teachers and buddies often but just isn't that sad to move on. And frankly, neither was I. Our last couple of months of preschool were a little rough around the edges. We worried that the transition to Kindergarten would be a difficult 6 to 8 week period not unlike his first couple of months of preschool, but in hindsight I think Elias was acting out at preschool because he was bored and ready to move on. But more about the first weeks of Kindergarten in my next post...