I don’t know if it’s a credit or discredit to our family that so much of our inaugural year at the BIG, PUBLIC school for our firstborn centered around the bus.

A credit? In Catie’s past years of school (Pre-school and Kindergarten), I was at the school and in her classroom nearly every day. Granted, her class was at our church and I was often there for meetings or to volunteer. The school is an extension of the church, and I became very good friends with each of her teachers. Every day I would get her version of the day, then through text, phone or email conversations, I got her teacher’s version of the day. The director of her pre-school is one of my close friends. I was the Class Mom. The commute to her school was 30 minutes, plenty of chatting time.
To put it simply: I was all up in her business.
But we were all happy. And well informed.
And then came First Grade and a new independence for Catie.
Really what came was Nate, a new school for the twins, and a book deadline. Suddenly, it was literally impossible to have that level of involvement in her school day. But we did what we could. Catie wanted to ride the bus, so we walked her to the corner everyday. And mostly everyday, the twins, Nate and I waited for her on the porch. Besides nightly homework sessions, most our first-grade energy and involvement was about meeting and greeting the bus.
The result?
The eight hours Catie is at school are an undocumented abyss. According to her reports, she does “nothing” all day. Nothing at recess. Nothing in her classroom. Can’t remember what she eats for lunch. She’s the only A/B student who’s completely clueless about what the heck she is learning.
Except the bus. She’s FULL of bus news. The reason has got to be that the bus is the last thing she does every day. Every day she hops off with a full report about who said what and did what on the bus.
And the mornings are all BUS DRAMA: Shoes on! Folder signed? Backpack ready? Hair combed! Yes, tennis shoes! Eat! The bus! Drink your milk. Bus is coming! FOLDER? BACKPACK? BUS is coming! BUS is COMING! GOGOGOGOGO!
And then nothing.
The bus whisks her into the abyss.
Until the afternoon, when she runs off the bus, full of stories.
About the bus.
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