Kindergarten!

It's official - we have a kindergarten student in our house!  Malik had his first day at Pella Christian Grade School last Monday, August 19th.  

We chose this particular school for his kindergarten year because they offer a progressive schedule (as opposed to the public school system that starts them all day, every day, right away).  This semester he will attend all day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  After Christmas, they will add Tuesday and after spring break, Thursday.  

Initially, Malik was hesitant about attending school but as the first day approached he became more and more excited.  

First day pictures:

Our neighbor was kind enough to run across the street to take this picture for us as we were waiting for the bus to arrive.

We're fortunate that the bus stops right at our house for Malik.  Between the bus fee that we have to pay and the fact that the bus has to drive right by our house to leave our neighborhood, it works out pretty well!

Malik rode the bus to school and I met him there.  I really needed to see that he had made it there okay and was settled in his classroom.  He beat me by a long shot and had already colored half of his picture by the time I arrived.  

This is his sweet teacher, Miss Carrie.  Malik was hoping to be placed in her room and is so excited to have her as his teacher this year.  She has such a calming and caring disposition.  It helps me feel better as well, knowing that he is well loved and cared for by her while he is at school.

(As a side note - you can see in this picture part of the 'circus wagon' reading area she has in her room.  It's kind of a loft area and super cool!)

They started their first day with an all-school (K-8th grade) chapel time in the gym.  Parents were invited to stay.  We enjoyed some worship music by the band that normally plays at our church, a skit, and then a brief talk by the principal, Mr. DeJong.  He took time to introduce, by name, all of the new staff and students.  Each person stood and waved to the crowd.  In the aspect of good time management, he had all 68 kindergarten students stand at the same time.  As you can see in this picture, none of them turned around to wave.  Many of them did wave, but just at Mr. DeJong up on the stage.  Malik is in the plain blue shirt.

Malik had a great first week of school.  He seems to love going there, which makes us feel good about our choice.  Our only hiccup in the week was when the bus forgot to pick him up for school on Friday morning.  Good thing we don't live too far away from the school!  The bus driver felt really bad.  It's understandable that she forgot since she doesn't have to stop at our house on Tuesday and Thursday.  In one way, it was kind of a blessing as it gave me an opportunity to see him having fun on the playground with his friends as Elias and I left for home.