It’s the first day of 1st Grade for my son today and while it’s still weird with COVID, some things are a little better than last year! We actually got to visit the classroom this year before school started and meet the teacher. I was pretty excited to get to actually go into the school, because we barely made it past the front door all last year. I never even went inside his Kindergarten classroom and only saw it in photos.

Obligatory Back to School Photos

I did a blog post a couple years ago for Cohas Chalk Milestone Boards, so I dug out those for an official back to school first day photo! They actually have ones made just for the occasion, but I only had Happy Birthday and Happy New Year to choose from, so I went with the 16×12″ ocean theme one and scribbled out “birthday” to make it Happy First Day of School. You can find their whole memory board selection, including this one on Amazon: Cohas Chalkboard Systems.

Ready for 1st Grade

It was a beautiful morning for our bike ride to school! We met up with some friends along the way and made it there WAY faster than we did on the first day riding to Kindergarten. Keelan is an expert at biking to school now. No crashes and no meltdowns. It was a smooth ride all the way. Hoping for the same on the ride home.

Parents have the option to opt out of the mask wearing policy, but we decided he should at least try to wear it since COVID is running rampant again and the news is busy scaring the crap out of me on a daily basis. But not scaring me enough to try and homeschool. I need a break to save my sanity. I’m sitting here right now, enjoying the quiet house and being able to hear myself think. And nobody has asked me to get them a glass of milk or a snack in at least two hours so that has really freed up a lot of my time.

Growing up Fast

Hard to believe he’s in 1st Grade already! It really does go by fast. We still have to do the drop-off at the front off the school and say goodbye there, before they go in by themselves. I was hoping to get to walk him to class on the first day, but I felt better when he assured me he knew how to find his classroom. I was a little shocked because last year he had one of the crossing guards escort him to class every single day. Just another sign that he is really growing up!

Here’s to hoping for a better school year, where we get to be involved a little bit more, and actually visit the classroom now and then. I’m tired of all this virtual stuff!

Are your kids starting school this week? What’s it like where you are?