why p.m. kindergarten rocks

Dylan loved his first day of school. I didn't know if I'd get many details, but he gave me the full scoop. He said they did puzzles, and practiced a fire drill (or a drill fire, he called it), they listened to a story about a raccoon going to school, then did some worksheets about the story using scissors and glue. He said his teacher wore a green shirt and the assistant teacher wore a blue shirt. His school bus is new and has seat belts and he sat by himself on the way home. He only had time to eat about half of his snack. He drank chocolate milk, but not all of it. And he was a good boy.

This morning he was excited to go back. And I'm just so proud of him, and thrilled things are going so well.

I am truly so glad kindergarten here is half day, its a nice adjustment period for full day first grade last year.

Here's why p.m. kindergarten rocks:

1. We can still sleep in. Let me re-phrase. DYLAN can still sleep in. The rest of us are up between 7-7:30 am as usual. Dylan is not a morning guy. So to be able to put off the early morning battle of wake up go potty brush teeth eat breakfast get dressed get to bus stop all before 7:30 am for one more year is awesome. Next fall will be a huge adjustment to his routine.

2. By the time Dylan gets on the bus, Logan and I wave goodbye and have about an hour or so to go run errands before nap time. It is infinitely easier running an errand with only one child verses two. Over the next few weeks, Logan will be starting some gym and music classes which will give us some fun one-on-one time too, so all our time together isn't spent at Target and Wegman's.

3. We all have a good 2 1/2 hours in the morning for some quality time together. This morning we made three loaves of banana bread AND had a playdate before school!

4. Logan naps a good two hours while Dylan is at school. This equates to ME TIME. Which usually equates to cleaning something, organizing something, putting something away, making some phone calls, working on MOMS Club stuff and of course, blogging. But its dreamy to do all of this in a quiet house with no kids running and yelling and asking for snacks. And I plan to set aside some time to exercise during this time as soon as I can get my hands on some DVD's.

We have also established a new house rule, right from the start. Homework must be done right after school. He comes home, has a snack, and has to do homework before playing or anything else. If he doesn't do it then, I know I'll lose him by after dinner. Last night he was so tired. I can't imagine how he'd be if he had to go full day right now.