First Day of School

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Well, it's that time. The first day of first grade is Monday. I have a very excited little 6-year-old who is really looking forward to it. After looking into homeschooling, private schools and checking out our local public school, we opted for the latter. I'm nervous, to say the least!

My first day of first grade did not go very well. I had two teachers, and I had the same ones for 1st - 3rd grades. I thought the main teacher, who was ready to retire and severly overworked, was mean, as I got in trouble that day for drawing on a desk, when in fact it was my 3rd grade friend who drew on a desk and wrote my name on it, as a way of welcoming me to the "open classroom", which had 1st throgh 3rd graders in it. I also remember the weird paste-eating kid who also liked to staple his fingers. That was... bizarre. Yeah, school. Some people loved it, some people hated it.

I just want my kids to be happy and enthusiastic about learning -- my first grader is very bright and very imaginative and very sensitive, and I really, really hope this place "clicks" with him. He met his teacher, and said "She seems like a nice lady. I've got this all under control." and one of his friends will be in his class too.

I thought people could post their memories of this day here. What was the first day of school like for you? What worked, what didn't, and why?
 
I really don't remember my first day. I went to preschool early on and then kindergarten I can barely remember anything that went on that year. I remember a lot of first grade but the first day does not come to my mind at all. I guess it was just sort of routine for me by that point. In the following years I remember first days being pretty underwhelming for me. My friends would all get excited/freaked and I was always just like... meh it's ok.
 
I don't remember my first day either, but my neice is starting school next year, so I'm feeling a bit concerned about it.
School was not a nice place for me, but that was partly because I managed to get into a school filled with spoiled kids (because I live in a weirdly rich area, despite my mum getting an average income - go housing deals!) who hated my sis and me for being tall and enjoying art a lot.
I did make one friend I will always remember (we got separated in secondary school), but that was about all that was good.
 
The only thing I remember from first grade is this girl Holly telling on me for chewing gum.
I had to walk in front of the entire class to spit it out in my teacher's hand. I was wearing a bright pink pair of corduroy shorts and a long white shirt with hearts on it. I was so upset because I thought we were friends and I was so excited to have gum and then she told on me.

It makes me laugh to think about it now.
 
I really don't remember my first day. I went to preschool early on and then kindergarten I can barely remember anything that went on that year. I remember a lot of first grade but the first day does not come to my mind at all. I guess it was just sort of routine for me by that point. In the following years I remember first days being pretty underwhelming for me. My friends would all get excited/freaked and I was always just like... meh it's ok.
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Hehe, that seems to be my son's attitude. He is mostly excited about the bus and the fact that the school has computers.

laurie said:
I don't remember my first day either, but my neice is starting school next year, so I'm feeling a bit concerned about it.
School was not a nice place for me, but that was partly because I managed to get into a school filled with spoiled kids (because I live in a weirdly rich area, despite my mum getting an average income - go housing deals!) who hated my sis and me for being tall and enjoying art a lot.
I did make one friend I will always remember (we got separated in secondary school), but that was about all that was good.
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Wow, that could have been taken almost verbatim from my life too...

The only thing I remember from first grade is this girl Holly telling on me for chewing gum. I had to walk in front of the entire class to spit it out in my teacher's hand. I was wearing a bright pink pair of corduroy shorts and a long white shirt with hearts on it. I was so upset because I thought we were friends and I was so excited to have gum and then she told on me.

It makes me laugh to think about it now.
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That's life... LOL!
I also remember some of the clothes -- that used to be SUCH a big deal, for girls anyway -- my mom insisted on dressing me in frilly little hand-smocked dresses (she is a talented seamstress, among other things) and all the other kids had these groovy bell bottoms with appliques. I was jealous.
 
I remember some kid took a magnet to a computer screen during play time. It was one of those old computer that you put real floppy disks into, not the tiny floppy disks. We also had to spell our name for our name tags and I was the only kid at my table who couldn't write their name legibly.
 
mf said:
I remember some kid took a magnet to a computer screen during play time. It was one of those old computer that you put real floppy disks into, not the tiny floppy disks. We also had to spell our name for our name tags and I was the only kid at my table who couldn't write their name legibly.
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Oh, I remember floppy disks... I didn't know they gave them to first graders back in the day! Handwriting -- meh, no big deal, that comes with time, a lot of little first graders have not so legible handwriting.
 
Janet said:
Oh, I remember floppy disks... I didn't know they gave them to first graders back in the day! Handwriting -- meh, no big deal, that comes with time, a lot of little first graders have not so legible handwriting.
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Yeah, I really don't know why we had them in the classroom. They ran off of 8-inch floppy disks which we getting phased out quickly, but they still were expensive computers. After the one monitor got ruined the computers quickly disappeared from the classroom.

I really don't know how they expected 5 year olds to write their name!
 
You were only 5? Jeeze. Most 5-year-old boys have trouble even holding a pencil correctly, it is a simple matter of fine motor skills development and hand strength, which takes a while, and which most 5 year olds simply don't have. Ouch. I am sure your fine motor skills are stellar now, and I'm sorry to hear you had to go through that. Hmph.
 
mf said:
Yeah, I really don't know why we had them in the classroom. They ran off of 8-inch floppy disks which we getting phased out quickly, but they still were expensive computers. After the one monitor got ruined the computers quickly disappeared from the classroom.

I really don't know how they expected 5 year olds to write their name!
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Woah, I was five in kindergarten.
You were a youngin.
 
Bird said:
Woah, I was five in kindergarten.
You were a youngin.
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Yeah, I forgot to mention earlier that I was in kindergarten not first grade.
 
I don't remember much from first grade. I remember a lot of little things, but they're all kind of lumped together into a "first grade memories" box. Like one time, milk came out of my nose (we were sharing funny jokes) and it got all over this other kid--I felt terrible, and even worse when the lunch attendant (I have no clue what the heck else she did at the school) got me into trouble for "spitting on a classmate." Thankfully, the classmate knew it was an accident and told the teacher, so I got let off the hook. That didn't happen on my first day.

My first day of first grade (I'm assuming) went just fine, seeing as I can't remember it in any amount of detail.
 
I remember my first day of the second grade. My parents put me into the school late by a few days/week (one of four times they would do so within my life), but I was excited to meet all the other kids. I made friends fairly quickly, and one enemy.
Well, the poor kid might have had a crush on me, but at the time I couldn't figure out why he was so rude/mean. Once when I ignored him for a whole day he punched me in the stomach (I'm a tiny kid so this worried the teacher who immediately began yelling at him).
I used the distraction to tackle and choke him like I was a boa-constrictor and he my next meal. I also might have pulled his hair at the same time. He flailed but I wasn't even trying to keep my feet on the ground since he was taller than me. The teacher managed to pull me off and we were both given time-outs while our parents were called...
Ah, memories.:m163:

I actually was not at all a violent child. I simply took extreme exception to being punched in the stomach.

But the first days of school were always exciting for me. Every person a potential new friend.
 
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