Kindergarten Orientation

Today was an exciting one for Julia -- EVEN MORE exciting than the day she got to wear her toddler outfit.  Today, at long last, was the day of her kindergarten orientation.  Since the school is only about a mile from our house, we decided to try walking there, and while Julia skipped gaily down the sidewalk holding my hand, she was full of cheer over the chilly, dismal weather.

JULIA: Mama?  The reason I said I wanted to walk is that it's cold today and I think it feels like FALL and I CAN'T WAIT FOR TRICK-OR-TREATING!!!  
ME: You're just like your mom and your aunties!  Do you know what I love?  I love when the air feels crisp and chilly in the fall and it feels really Halloweeny...
JULIA: (elated) ME TOO!  And I love the smell of DEAD LEAVES!
ME: I love the smell of woodsmoke coming from the chimneys in the fall.
JULIA: Mama, I wish that the seasons went FALL, SUMMER, WINTER, SPRING because I love fall!
ME: You mean you want it to be fall next instead of summer next?
JULIA: (brightly) Uh-huh!  Because I LOVE TRICK-OR-TREATING!

When we got to school, the teachers led the herd of incoming kindergarteners down the hall towards the K classrooms, and parents and kids alike took a seat outside the classroom doors while the teachers read a story to the group.

"Do you want to sit on my lap so you can see better?" I asked Julia.  After glancing around to assess whether other kids were sitting on their mom's laps (they were not), she declined my offer.  However, as the story progressed and the teachers asked questions of the group of kids, Julia determined that it was much safer to shout out answers amongst this group of strangers if she was in her mommy's lap, so up she went.

After the story and a Q&A session, the kids were allowed to explore their soon-to-be classrooms and meet their future teacher.  Julia was initially quite shy, clinging onto my hand, not sure she wanted to even look at her new teacher, let alone engage on one-on-one conversation with her.  Once she started playing with some wooden blocks, she loosened up a bit:

Once we had spent some time in her kindergarten classroom, we checked out the KASE room, where Julia will be spending three mornings a week before her scheduled afternoon kindergarten class.  Once she discovered they had a dollhouse, she went from feeling shy to being totally sold on the whoel kindergarten idea:

Too self-conscious to talk the dollhouse figurines aloud to each other as she played with them?  No way, Jose.  Julia was in her complete, utter pretend-play glory with those dollhouse people.  No more Little Miss Shy for her.

The final stop we made was the kindergarten playground, where Julia got to try out the monkey bars a few times (always needing my help and support.)  As we started our walk back home, Julia chattered on and on about those monkey bars, and how she *really* *really* wants to learn how to get across them like Ramona does in the movie "Ramona and Beezus."  Despite the mile-long trek home, Julia was full of energy, not flagging in her bouncy, exuberant skip-walk along the sidewalks.  I thought she would be tuckered out after two miles on her feet, but no, what was the first thing she asked of me once we got in the house and paid the baby-sitter?  "Mom, can I gallop?"

After her Gallop Time, she set about trying to design her own indoor monkey bar system so that she can practice over the summer and get into tip-top shape by the time school starts:

As you can see, it's basically a carbon-copy set-up of real monkey bars.  I mean, climbing around on chairs that are shorter than she is and "grabbing" onto paper handles taped to the chairs is pretty much EXACTLY the same thing as hanging from a horizontal ladder and learning to swing your body from one rung to the next.  Well done, Julia.

Above anything else, I am truly thrilled that Julia left the orientation *wanting* to stay and play longer, and was in such a bubbly, rambunctious mood on our way home.  I think the butterflies in her tummy are easing about what is to come in the next year, leaving her excited to take the next step in her schooling journey.  As long as she has a dollhouse and monkey bars to look forward to, I think she's going to be just fine.