This last week I started my 25th year as a speech therapist with the Troy City Schools. It is always exciting beginning each new year...anticipating your new students, hoping to reach each one and make a difference in their life and also to be a good friend to your work family.
This week has made me think back on our own kids "first" days in school. I was really nervous and scared when Bill began kindergarten. He just seemed so small and I just really wasn't ready for him to grow up. He went to what was called Cherry Street School in Troy. He would ride to school with me at Oakland Heights and then "catch" a ride with another parent to his school. His teacher was Mrs. Jennings, who is still teaching with me now. He had a behavior board with a mouse on it. If his mouse "came down" he had not had a good day! Well....his mouse came down a lot. Not for BIG things, but little things like he talked at rest time, didn't stay in line in the hall, "played" in the lunchroom etc. Each day Mickey would ask him if his "RAT" stayed up! When Bill would come to my room I would immediately look at his folder in his backpack. One day he told somebody that he couldn't even get in my room before I started "digging in his backpack".
I knew that Mallory was so excited to begin school so this really did not bother me as much. The December she turned 5 she was so upset that she could not go to kindergarten that very day! She was READY! She began in the new Troy Elementary School. Her teacher was Mrs. Dunn. All I had asked Mr. Jones was to please put her with some of her friends. I knew that all of the teachers were good...I just wanted her to be with some of her friends. She was in a room with an AWESOME teacher and not one of her friends! But sociable Mallory made friends quickly and had a great year. I never got over it though! She wore a side ponytail almost everyday and had a pretty bow to match her outfit. I would sometimes see her walking down the hall with her thumb in her mouth! She did love that thumb!
The summer before Marley was to start Kindergarten made me really sad. I knew it was the last one beginning kindergarten and it really got next to me. We had her a navy blue dress with orange bows smocked around the neck for her to wear. Cute little MaryJane shoes. We had been ready for weeks! On the first day of school I have to get to school really early to avoid traffic issues and help with the new students. That morning Marley informed me that she was NOT going to wear that dress. I calmly said that she was and for us to go ahead and get dressed. She said she WAS NOT going to wear that dress because people would think she was for Auburn! Oh my lanta! I thought I was going to have to beat her cute little butt on her first day of kindergarten! I explained to her it was a Troy Elementary School dress and she would never have to wear it again, but she WAS going to wear it that day. I have never been one to fight the clothes battles, but by George I was going to fight this one and I was going to WIN! She wore the dress and by the end of her first day when I saw her she was barefoot and smiling in front of the welcome to our school sign!
Just for the record: Mallory; Never had a pair of jeans until she was in the fourth grade. Was so excited to get her first pair. Always let me dress her like a precious little doll! Bill; I picked out his clothes until he moved out. I would iron his shirt, jeans/khakis and he would put it on with a smile! Always looked sharp! Marley; At 2 years old if I gave her a choice of shorts or a dress she would want to wear a skirt. If I put our a skirt and shorts for her to choose from she would want to wear a dress. So, I would tell her to just get dressed in something because I had to get to work! I didn't care! It would really bother Mallory some of the things that she would pick out! HAHA...But then she might be at the ball field in a smocked bubblesuit playing in the red dirt! Lawdy Lawdy Miss Marley! What stories, what stories, what sweet, fun memories and stories!
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