Caroline Starts 1st Grade

Caroline is starting 1st Grade (小学校) this week! On Monday, we had an entrance ceremony for all the new students. It was very interesting for sure. Our Japanese teacher came with us so she could help translate important things for us. It was so helpful.

The parents went to the gym to listen to PTA boring stuff and the kids went to their classrooms to meet the teachers. Then the students met us in the gym and listened to the principal’s message.

After that, one parent was allowed back in the classrooms to meet the teacher and talk about walking to school groups. So Heather took care of that.

That was all for the first day. We got a tree’s worth of paper with explanations of all the school related things. Our teacher stayed at our house for an extra 2 hours with Heather, just trying to read them all. And they didn’t even finish. She is coming back tomorrow. We couldn’t do this without her.

This morning was Caroline’s first day walking to school. We walked with her to the group meeting point in our neighborhood. There are 8 kids in her group and three of them are 6th graders, which are the oldest kids at the elementary school. Caroline was nervous at first, but the leader of the group talked to her and Caroline fell right in line behind her. Heather, Nathan, and I actually followed them all the way to school because we were nervous for her. But after doing it, it doesn’t seem bad at all.

We definitely live in the country. Sometimes it feels like Ohio.

We met Caroline at the parents pick up point in our neighborhood after school. This week and next is practice week for the kids, so parents are walking them home. But after that, they are independent little 6 year olds. The first thing Caroline said when we picked her up today was, “I don’t want you guys to follow me to school tomorrow”. I guess she feels comfortable. I’m definitely not comfortable with it yet.