Yesterday was Eleanor Zitao's first day of kindergarten. She spent the morning with me at the university while I taught my undergrads and tutored in the lab, and I accompanied her to kindergarten in the afternoon. I have to say that I rather preferred the kindergarten section of the day.

We had debated putting her straight into first grade (since she was a first grader in China), but at this time of the year, I felt it was just too much to ask. I walked around the school with Eleanor on Monday, to give her a feel for the place, and the first graders were busily reading aloud in English. And they really did seem huge in comparison to little Zitao (who isn't much bigger than Gennie). There was no way she could feel comfortable in there right away. Her math skills are excellent, though, so I don't worry at all about that aspect of her education. I'm hoping to give her some extra practice with the math, so she doesn't lose that in the easier class. And if she catches up quickly, or even surpasses her peers, it's much nicer to push her forward a grade rather than holding her back.

Ms. Omer, the kindergarten teacher, is the kind of kindergarten teacher everybody would love to have. She's gentle, firm, and controls the children well without having to use harsh words. She's the right kind of teacher for little George, who wore his batman cape to kindergarten yesterday, and was having a hard time keeping his hand down because he had a lot to say about everything. (When he couldn't monopolize speaking time, he decided that poking his neighbor might be a good idea. Poor George got sent to the blue table - horrors.)

Eleanor was quiet and serious, as she usually is when she's in a new place or situation. She breezed through the "color this many jellybeans" exercise - this kid is well beyond coloring jellybeans - and proceeded to color an entire picture red, while the other kids drew pictures of lollipop trees and rainbows. The way her hands were moving as she colored, I could tell she was nervous. And coloring an entire picture red would take a long time, during which nobody would bother her - a good thing at that point. Anyway, none of the other kids could write their names in Chinese characters... she was one up on them there! (We have some great pictures of Eleanor's here at home - I apparently have a triangle shaped body, and a really big red heart or a really big red belly button - it's hard to tell which. And crazy hair, which I already knew about, of course).

They went to an assembly, and recess, and watched movies about hatching chicks (they are incubating some eggs these last weeks in kindergarten). I got to visit with the ESL teacher, who will be pulling Eleanor out for English practice at 2:00 every afternoon. The ESL teacher adopted a 13 year old from Russia some time ago, so she's well versed in older child adoption, and in English language acquisition. She told us to expect a number of years for true fluency, which I'm not terribly worried about. Zitao is getting along fine, even after two weeks. And Eleanor LIKES recess (what kid doesn't). She finally started to smile out there. And she smiled even more when Sarah came to claim her little sister at the end of class. They get to ride the bus home together - big, independent kids that they are. (I had to beat the school bus home, so I could be there to greet them on the other end. Eleanor was looking behind her in puzzlement when she saw me at the bus stop - how did Mommy DO that? She was just at school, and didn't get on the bus with us... hmm... magic.)

"Magic" about sums it up - everything still feels surreal. Of course, that could be the fatigue talking, too...