It’s that time of year, finally.

A week from this coming Monday, the Monster goes to his first day of public school.  We still have no idea what time the bus will come for him, or what time it will drop him off, but we know that he’s going to be going.

The wife’s been doing all of his pre-school shopping this week, not that this itself is a change from past years.  The difference is the list of things he needs – pencils, paper, glue sticks and the like… and uniforms.

For her, the former are an interesting mix.  We’re not entirely sure that he’s going to need all of them, or if there’s other items he might need.  She was given the general “preschool” prep list for this year (the host school also has ordinary preschool classes too), and the “Together With Me” program supposedly does stick to the standard curriculum.  However, we can’t help but wonder if he really needs all those thick pencils and the like, since he barely does more than scribble now – maybe he’ll surprise us over the course of the year.

To me, the uniform’s an interesting spot.  He doesn’t often give us problems with wearing whatever we put him in, so I’m not too worried on that regard.  (We’ll see if he gets tired of the outfits, which might be a wholly different matter.)  It’s the question of the mix of clothing to buy him – how much warm-weather and how much cold-weather – coupled with the fact that uniform manufacturers all seem to bundle ‘normal’ pants (read: for children who are toilet trained and not toddler pants which would accommodate his diaper) in the bundles.  That part, we’re just going to have to play by ear, I suppose, and maybe run to WalMart now and again for supplemental clothing.

The biggest thing to me about his going off to school is that it will, finally, re-establish some order in his life.  We’re not intending at the moment to take any trips during the school year, so he’ll be in class Monday through Friday every day, which will be good for giving him something predictable.  I’m hoping that, with whatever they do at the school, helps to give him a foundation to move forward.