Productivity

This is the pile of schoolwork and artwork that Dash brought home from school in the Spring, more or less, with a few things of Mabel's thrown in. It's been sitting there all summer, leering at me. (I leered back.)

This morning, Dash went to school and in ten minutes of concentrated activity, while Mabel watched some nice educational My Little Pony (ahem), I turned the pile into this:

Yes, I could have done it at any point during the past two months - though not with Dash in the room telling me that every single worksheet had sentimental value - but somehow I was never inspired to. It's now sorted into (mostly) recycling as well as a few folders containing some representative pieces of writing or artwork from his kindergarten year, a couple of stray school reports I should have put  elsewhere in the first place, and about fifteen love notes to me, his father, and even his sister. (Awww.)

If you were here last year, you might remember that Dash took a while to settle in to elementary school. Let's just say he fears change. On the first morning he clung to me piteously, and I left the classroom with him crying under his desk, where he remained for two hours until the teacher told him it was against the rules to be under the desks.

Today, I was pretty confident that he'd be fine. He took the new room and the new teacher in his stride, and wasn't fazed by the fact that none of his particular friends from kindergarten or nursery school are in his class this year.

And he looked just as happy at the end of the day. His teacher gave him a candy ("a sugarfree candy") for walking the right way, and she taught them a song about keeping their hands by their sides and their feet straight ahead, and he ate all his lunch, and there was a fire drill at recess but he still found his old best friend from last year in the playground.

So first grade is looking good on all fronts.