one day down, thirteen years to go

Zach and I picked Sarah up this afternoon, and she looked wiped out. The teachers released the students one by one when and only when they found the parent to whom they belonged. Sarah slogged over to us. After a quick trip to the library, we celebrated the first successful day of kindergarten with a trip to Koa Koa for frozen yogurt (with sprinkles and coconut, of course). Sarah reported that they had a spelling bee where they had to stand in front of the class and spell words. Perhaps the children here are more advanced than I expected. She has a paper with the following written on it:

splen bee wrdss (spelling bee words)

motrsickl (motorcycle)

wagints (wagons)

butrfleis (butterflies)

penslshrpinres (pencil sharpeners)

craons (crayons)

libries (libraries)

I'm not quite sure what that was all about. She reported that her favorite part of the day was recess except the teachers said they couldn't do the monkey bars because too many kids were getting hurt. The rules include no hitting and no pushing. Another favorite was play time where everyone wanted to play with the kitchen and the doll cradles which apparently involved significant amounts of pushing and hitting. There are also blocks but no one plays with those because then you have to clean them up and can't possibly clean them all up in just three minutes. Her teacher is reportedly a little bit strict and a little bit lenient. In the gym all they got to do was listen to the rules which include not standing too close to the person next to you when you do the hula hoops. Only they didn't actually get to do the hula hoops. My favorite part of the whole day was the little note she left me in her lunchbox in response to my note to her. It reads like this, "DER MOM I AM HAVIEN A GRAT TIM LOV U SARAH V." (All caps are intended by the author although the spacing was adjusted by the mother.)