We met Chloe's kindergarten teacher tonight

Such a big day for Chloe and me. Well, more for me than her. My baby starts school next week and we went to her school today and found out who her teacher was. She has Mrs. Martinez and she seems like a real nice person. She has 22 kids in her class and Chloe will have her first day of school next Thursday. Next week they have gradual entry for the kindergarteners. Each day next week, only about 7 students from each class go on that day. Chloe's day is Thursday and she will be there all day. Then the next Monday, Sept. 11th, she starts going every day.

I went today really nervous. I had some questions and concerns in my mind that were probably trivial, but were a big deal to me. This is my FIRST baby going to school and leaving me and I had all sorts of silly fears. But Mrs. Martinez answered all my questions, I got all the info I needed, and now we have alerted all our family to save cereal tops for education dollars. lol I can't begin to say how excited, relieved, and happy I am that Chloe is going to David Douglas school district and not Portland Public Schools. I would have moved back to Vancouver or homeschooled her if I thought she would go to PPS. She will have all day kindergarten, the school is on the other side of the park which is only a football field length away from our front door. We will be able to walk Chloe to school every day.

So to start things off, we went inside the school and saw which teacher she would have and what room she was in. We headed down the hall with the sea of parents and children to the different classrooms. We found her room in the very back of the school in the corner from where we started. This did not make me feel very good. But we got to the classroom and I met the teacher. When did all the teachers start getting younger than me??? She looked like she was barely out of high school. But we walked around the room and got her familiar with everything that was going to happen. I saw a schedule of her day, where the cubbyholes were for backpacks, the reading area, and the desks. I felt good being in there and it made me happy to see where Chloe would be all day. Jason and I introduced Chloe to Mrs. Martinez and they had a little chat. We also met the teacher's aide Nicole too. We found the library, the gym, cafeteria, etc. Everywhere that Chloe would be, we went and found it so she knew what it looked like.

I had the dumbest thoughts in my head but I seriously could not remember anything, so I had to find out and ask the dumbest questions. I found out that the kindergarten kids eat at their own table, they go to lunch together, the teacher's aide stays with them during lunch and helps wherever needed, Chloe will have snack time, recess where she won't have a chance to walk home, etc. From the playground, you can see our apartment and I worried that she would want to take off during recess and walk home. But they have people on the grounds watching the kids and Chloe would never get that far without someone noticing and bringing her back. I have Mrs. Martinez classroom number, the office number, and all the information I could need.

When we left, I felt shaky and weepy. It's like Mom said, I had the bringing up of Chloe for 5 years and now I was handing her off to be taught by someone else. I wasn't sure I could do this, but I'm proud of Chloe and I know that she will do awesome. She's terribly shy, but I KNOW that this experience will be so good for the both of us. It's just hard to believe that my baby is going to school! I feel like crying now.

Just pray that I don't make a fool of myself on her first day of school. I'm going to work on not letting her know I want to cry and then making sure I don't actually do it till after I drop her off in her classroom.