K Screening

I picked Eli up early from the daycare to take him to kindergarten screening. I wasn't even sure where the school was so I had to use mapquest before I left-how sad is that? It's only 2 minutes from the daycare, so that's convenient, but is back in a residential section that I've never had a reason to wander through.

We turned on the street and I can tell from mapquest it should be right there, but I didn't see it; only the old hospital. Then the car in front of me stops to wait to make a left hand turn and I have a minute to look around. Turns out I just need to follow the car in front of me, on the left is the school, almost behind some houses. Now I just have to navigate the parking lot. No small feat, let me tell you. There are arrows going various directions and lines for busses to line up in (I think, or else I really don't know much about lines and driving!).

Anyway, we find a place to park and Eli was very excited, but was more than willing to hold my hand as we walked in. He asked if I was going to stay with him and I said I'd be there the whole time. Turns out what I meant and he heard were two different things.

As we walked in there was a table right there and we got our packet for him, although after I gave our last name as requested, she looked down at her pile, and his is on top, and says, "Ellie?"
"Uh, no, it's Eli." I mean, can you not see the boy standing right in front of you, at your eye level even since you are sitting down?

About this time an aquaintence of mine recognizes me and starts talking to me. It took me a second to even recognize her, and I was not in the mode of talking to her as I was trying to figure out what we needed to do or where we need to go next and get Eli geared up for it. He takes a little prep time in new situations.

Then one of the teachers says, "Eli, you come with me," and the death grip on my hand started along with clinging to my leg. It only took about one minute of explaining to him that I had to go in with all the parents and he was going to go with the teachers like we had talked about. I would be there waiting on him when he was done. Then as quickly as the fear came, he turned on the big boy mode and took her hand and walked down the hall.

I filled out paperwork upon paperwork, gave them documents to make copies of, and turned everything in. So he's all registered up!

When he was done he got a sucker and a balloon and was a happy boy. Then he started the "wiggly" dance and I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom. He said yes, so I said, "Well, we need to find the bathrooms." He answers, "They're right down here," as he points down the hall.

We headed down that way and I asked one of the teachers so they didn't think we were just cruising the building, and he was right. So I took him to the "boys" room and he went in by himself. He's never gone alone in a public bathroom before, but I figure in a couple of months he'll have to go by himself anyway, so we might as well start now. I guess. He seems like such a big kid now.

All the kindergarteners in the district go to one school, and then there are 3 primarys, 3 intermediate, 1 junior high and one high school. So they put them in either morning or afternoon based on what primary school they will go to so they could be in class with some of the same kids in first grade, which seems like a good idea to me. He will be in afternoon kindergarten, which I think will work out nicely with our childcare situation (which may be changing in the near future).

We should get the results in a couple of weeks, so that will be interesting too.

When he was telling Tim about the screening later he referred to it as "my school" and was excited that he knows where it is and what it's called.