Roundup review

Last night was kindergarten roundup. The principal, who is my new best friend, personally emailed me to remind me, and I emailed him back with something witty and hilarious, and he emailed ME back and said I was so funny and now we basically have a standing dinner date every week to talk about all the teachers and parents in the school. We haven't put anything on the calendar yet but I know it's coming. Oh and he's going to hire me as Vice-Principal at the end of the school year next year, even though that is not currently a position. He told me with his eyes.

Anywho, back to the roundup, everyone was THRILLED to go, and by everyone was thrilled I mean everyone had completely forgotten about it except me who had lost sleep over it all week and Penny only heard the part where I said that Jamie and I would be going to the library while she and Harry stayed in the classroom, and so she stressed about that all day. She was scared. Very, very scared. Scared of what I would ask her. Scared of the teachers, the kids, the desks, the table, the school, the principal, the automatic flush toilet- she has a totally rational fear of literally everything in the school. So when we got out of the car she attached herself to my leg and kind of whimpered for a half hour.

The first day of school is going to be fun!

But we did get in the classrooms and Penny warmed up to things eventually. The classrooms are huge and they each have their own bathrooms which is nice and convenient. We met the teachers and I asked a bunch of questions (they start reading groups right away but don't give the DRA until January?) and when it was time for the parents and kids to separate, she did okay. (We told Harry to hold her hand and lead her to the carpet and then we got the hell out, so I don't really know, but I'm assuming she did okay.)

When we were reunited the teacher said that they both did great, that there were actually tied for the smartest kids she has ever met in her life and that is 100% due to my exceptional parenting. At least I'm pretty sure she said that, it was noisy in the library. It turns out that the classroom they were in is the only one without an automatic flush toilet, and since the teacher at least pretended like she liked Penny, I'm going to go ahead and say that will be her teacher next year. Now the big debate will be keeping them together or separating them, obviously Penny wants to stay together and obviously Harry wants the opposite of whatever Penny wants. I asked the teacher how she would feel about having both of them and she said that would be fine with her, so I'll have to discuss it with my BFF over a pitcher of margos this summer. All of my teacher and principal friends say separate, and my gut says separate, but my husband says 'Why would we separate?' and according to our marriage vows, I have to heed all of his advice and do his bidding always. Keeping them together would make the first days of school exponentially easier on Penny (and me) (and her teacher), but I know that if we do separate them she'll get her shit together eventually.

Ugh. Whatever happened to the one-room schoolhouse so I wouldn't have to grapple with this? Life was so much easier in the 1800's.