The very first day of school

A few weeks ago Gibbie had his very first day of school. Ever. We have found a school we are excited about and think will be a really good match for our kids and our family. It's north of us a ways; actually it's farther away from us than anything we regularly do, and isn't accessible to us by bus. That was a real bummer and we almost didn't even consider it just because of that. But then we visited, and they won our hearts.

The school is called Hand in Hand. It's not a conventional school at all, but a new educational model here in Minnesota, they call it a christian montessori homeschooling academy. Gibbie's program is just one short morning a week. He is, after all, only two. We are in the Family Preschool, which is an early childhood family education program. This means it is for very young children and there is a component for parents and children together in the classroom as well as a time when the parents leave the children in the classroom and go to a separate parent education session. We visited last year and Gibbie loved it. ("I'm gonna go to Hand-a-Hand-a-Hand. That's my school.) Then we visited this summer and Paul loved it too. Normally Paul works on the morning of school, but we are hoping he will be able to semi-regularly take the day off so he can come to Hand in Hand too.
Some details about Gibbie's class at Hand in Hand:
-There are nine children in his class
-His teachers are "Mrs. Ronnie" and "Miss Greta" and we like them.
-He shakes hands with them every day when we arrive.
-We are excited about getting to know the other parents. They are a neat group of people.
-His classroom has windows outside.
-He has his own cubby.
-He has his own bag of musical instruments. (He picked the yellow bag. The music program at Hand in Hand is excellent! We all love it. There will be a big holiday music program to look forward to.)
-Ezra has a class also; there is a special nursery for him, and a music class for him. (So far, we haven't left him there yet and he has enjoyed staying with Mama and Gibbie, and participating as much as he can in Gibbie's music class!)
-His classroom has a lovely reading corner.
-In class, he can help himself to water anytime he wants.

This is Gibbie in his new school clothes. He has a special Hand In Hand sweater also but we haven't used it yet, as it's not been cold enough to need it. He wears a collared shirt in white, blue, or red, with navy blue or khaki pants, and can't wear sneakers, but real nice school shoes.
He is also sporting a great belt we got at a nice little store on Randolph Avenue, Practical Goods. It's leather with colored beading and he really likes it!
In this picture, Gibbie is relaxing because we have just gotten home from school. Like most of us when we were just starting school, he seems to like it but is pretty nervous when we're getting ready to go in the morning. We talk and pray together about this, and it's going really well.