Countdown to Kindergarten

Today was Anna's Kindergarten orientation.  She was so excited all morning, she kept asking me what time we were going to leave even though I'd told her a million times it wasn't until after lunch.  To help pass the time we wrote her name on all of her school supplies.  I'm so excited for her, I'm glad she's excited about school, about riding the bus, about making new friends.

It dawned on me last week that I'd forgotten how public schools work on a different timetable and level of efficiency than the business world I used to work in.  My first reminder of this fact was when I attempted to find out the time of the orientation.  We had learned it was going to be on September 1 back when I registered Anna, but I didn't know the time.  I called on Wednesday (8 days before orientation).  I was told information was going to be mailed out that Friday (less than one week before orientation).  I got the information over the phone after explaining we were going to be out of town until the day before orientation, and then had to remind myself not to be surprised that the information wasn't mailed out earlier.

I mention the above because it prepared me for all the paperwork we received during orientation.  I have written our name, address, and phone number more times than I can count.  I have written out the same four emergency contacts at least three times (not including the two times I wrote them during Anna's registration in the spring).  I had a blank Student Information Form from Anna's teacher asking for the same information that is on the official, pre-filled Student Information Form that is part of her file.  It almost (but not quite) makes me want to leave home and go back to work to create process efficiencies for the school system so that I don't have to suffer through this every school year going forward.

Now, don't think that I am not a fan of public schools.  I am a product of the public education system.  My father worked in public schools for 30 years.  I know many other wonderful people who work in the public school system.  I have the utmost respect for dedicated teachers and administrators who work hard to teach our children.  But the inefficient systems that public schools use to handle their records and paperwork?  Those I can definitely do without!

But I digress.  Back to Anna's orientation.  She was disappointed to learn that her friend from daycare is in another class, but she was excited to learn that she is going to have two teachers.  Her teacher just had a baby and is going to be on maternity leave until January, so she will have one teacher the first half of the year, and another teacher the second half.  She found her name tag on her table all by herself.  She was enchanted by the playground equipment, and ecstatic about having a library at the school where she can check out books.  She was intrigued by the "learning cottages" (aka trailers) that have popped up at the school while renovations on certain buildings are going on.  And then she didn't want to leave when it was time to go.

And I can't believe it is time for her to go.  In five days she will be getting on that big yellow bus (at the glorious time of 6:53am) and heading off on her new adventure.  And she will probably handle it better than I will :)