Things I Love About the First Day of School

~How eager we all are to get up in the morning, even though we're tired and still making the move from relaxed summertime bedtime schedules.

~First day of school muffins. I think I made the best ones ever this year -- really tasty! I always feel like we should wait for Tacy to drop in to have one.

~The handprint tradition, which we started in kindergarten. Oh Lord, bless the work of our hands this year!

~Cracking open brand new books. There's something about glossy covers with no bent corners and bindings that are still uncracked that just get the learning sap flowing!

~New pencils. This year's treat: a root beer scented smencil.

~The first "learning bumps" (both teacher & student). It's almost a relief when we hit them because it snaps us out of the "everything is going to be perfect this year" mode (which usually only lasts about fourteen minutes...)

~Figuring out what's missing or not yet organized. For instance, all of our hand-held pencil sharpeners seem to have gone AWOL, and the battery-powered one is running out of juice. (But hooray for my DH, who stocked up on batteries the other day...

~Seeing how much your student REMEMBERS from last year. Yes, it's also a day to begin to realize what they've forgotten -- and that's helpful in its own way. But lots of fun to celebrate, with small inner cartwheels, all the good stuff that "stuck."

~A spirit of openness and flexibility!

ETA: Although it has an early time signature, I enjoyed adding to the post a bit at a time through the day.