Kindergarten here we come!

This morning was Annika's "kindergarten orientation" morning.  She was very excited about going, but I think she was quite overwhelmed while we were there.  She had a bit of trouble focusing on the activities that she was supposed to be doing.  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the morning.  The letter we received said there would be classroom activities, a time for parents to ask questions and a school tour.  Well, the whole time was just the classroom activities (which the kids were evaluated on - kind of reminds me of this post by my friend Melissa).  There was no tour, there was no time for questions.  We had to drop off a few forms in the office, so I did manage to ask a few questions there, but didn't get much for answers.  I was hoping to find out whether Annika would be in the morning or afternoon class, but they said they didn't have the classes finalized yet.  I also found out that one of the classes may be a kindergarten/grade 1 split, which I'm not crazy about.  Now, I have nothing against split classes (I was in split classes from grade 1 to 6), but I think that there's a big difference between kids just starting kindergarten and kids in grade 1 (maybe I'm wrong???).  I asked the school secretary if I could request the "just kindergarten" class and she said she would note our preference on Annika's file.  I also switched our preference from "afternoons" to "mornings".  It will be a challenge for us to get up and out the door on time, but for a variety of other reasons, I think it will work better for us.

Oh, and if it looks like she's got a shiner in these pictures, it's not because she got in a fight!  She got a bug bite right by her eye, and it's really swollen up.  Poor girl reacts like crazy to bug bites, especially the first ones of the season.

They sent us home with a bag full of all the activities that the kids did there to practice over the summer - it even included a pair of scissors and some crayons!  We'll go through the stuff a few times, but I think her time in preschool has prepared her well for kindergarten.  She may not have demonstrated the full extent of her skills today (a combination of shyness and too much other stuff to look at!), but she's definitely ready.  Now... am I??