First Day of School

Evie had her first day of school on Tuesday.  We had been to Orientation last week so she met the teacher and saw her classroom.  She was very excited about going.  I took her to school and told her that she would ride the bus to daycare after school, and I would pick her up after work from there.  She said she wanted to ride the bus to get to school, especially when she saw the bus in the neighborhood.  I walked her in, took a picture with her teacher, she sat down in the hall with the rest of her class, and I was off. 

I meant to call the daycare in the middle of the afternoon to check to make sure she got there ok.  But around the same time (also running between patients), I got a text from the other foster mom in my neighborhood (she's going to have to get a blog name because I'm sure she will keep showing up) saying she needed a last-minute sitter for her baby, so I was trying to coordinate with her about that. 

When I got to the daycare, the director said that Evie was on the wrong bus, but that the driver of the "wrong" bus brought her to the daycare anyway and all was well.  When I investigated the situation, here's how it went down.  I looked at a bus route list at Orientation, which said she was supposed to be on Bus 25.  Bus 25 was what was written on the tag on her bookbag (telling everyone where kids are supposed to go), and that was the bus she was put on.  However, at some point between Orientation the week before and the first day of school, the routes had changed and Bus 25 no longer went to her daycare.  I understand that things change, but there has to be some process for letting parents/teachers know what the changes are.  The teacher said a new list was put in her box, and she got it on Tuesday afternoon; and that no changes were highlighted, it was just a list.  I called the bus company today, and asked what their process was, and the only thing they could say was that the principals had the new lists on Monday.  I will be writing a well-worded letter in the next few days to the bus company and the principal to see if they can come up with any better process than that, so four-year-olds don't end up on the wrong bus in future years. 

Overall, she enjoyed her day at school, and she is already singing a bunch of songs that she has heard there (and making up the words/tune when she can't remember them).  She said she cried on the bus the first day (I don't think due to the route error, just because she had never been on a bus by herself before), and that she didn't make any friends the first day (I think because she didn't know any of their names).  But she loves it after a few days, and is very proud that she has walked into school by herself the last couple of days.