She goes to afternoon kindergarten and busing is provided both to and from school. Honestly, the bus was probably the scariest part for me. Arthur and I have been able to be in control of her environment since birth. We are NOT in control of a school bus (ahh, if only!)!
Each year I take a picture of the girls on the first day of school (up to this year it has been preschool) by the young Maple tree in our front yard. This year was no different. Tomorrow I will repeat the process with Ella. Tomorrow is HER first day of preschool.
Check out that plaid uniform!
There they are....waiting for the bus. Because it was the first day, buses were running late. I anticipated this. The bus driver was a sweet old man who apologized for being late. I walked right up into the bus and introduced myself and told him I would like to take a picture. It didn't turn out! She danced onto the bus and acted as if it were old hat. I was so scared for her....but she didn't need it.
After watching her ride off into the great abyss called school, Ella and I hopped in the van and drove directly to the school. At this point I struggled, but managed to hold back tears. We did not follow the bus. I had heard about too many people having accidents from doing that.
With younger sibling, video camera and digital camera in toe, I waltzed into the front of the school where I anticipated the buses would drop her off. Looking much like a tourist in NYC, I was ready to capture the moment! There were a few others with cameras. None with video cameras.
We were there at school waiting. Ella greeted her with a hug. McKenna seemed just fine. As she was coming off of the bus I heard something to this effect, "...now the teacher will meet us and bring us to our kindergarten class....that's what my mom said."
Ella and I returned to the bus stop and waited for McKenna again, at the end of school. McKenna came off of the bus a bit more downcast than I anticipated. In her eagerness to get to me (the bus let her off across the street from me, this was not where I was instructed to stand), she stumbled and fell on the road. I ran to her, swooped her into my arms....my heart cried for her. She immediately said, "I don't like the bus ride home." After questions and discussions, Arthur and I deduced that she is uncomfortable with the number of kids on the bus. She is especially uncomfortable with the middle schoolers.
I should let you know about busing here. In a public school kindergartners would only ride with other elementary school kids and middle schoolers would only ride with other middle schoolers. Most private schools (that even offer busing) cannot afford this age separation. Most private schools share busing with other schools. St. Ambrose is able to provide busing for it's students without having to share with other schools/districts. However, they cannot afford separating by ages. So, McKenna rides the school bus home with other St. Ambrose students as old as 13 years. Another thing to note about school transportation is that you don't ride the same bus from school that you rode to get there. It makes for a more efficient route and better timing. However, it can confuse a 5 year old. McKenna knows that she takes the squirrel bus home. Each bus has an animal picture in the window. Here she is getting off the bus.
McKenna's concerns about the bus:
the teenagers were loud, too crowded, she had to share a seat, and share a seat with a teenager, the bus driver got lost, a boy said her road name wrong, it took too long...
It did seem to take a long time. Hopefully, that will be minimized once the driver gains confidence in his route. Overall, I think she had a good day...well until she got on that squirrel bus.
