There weren’t any large groups of children and parents milling around when Eilidh Johnson showed up for her first day of school at Sycamore Lane Elementary School today.
That’s because the almost-5-year-old was the first student waiting outside the Lower Sackville school anxiously waiting for the doors to open. She and her dad arrived around 7:30 a.m.
“She’s not nervous at all. She’s prepared and ready to go,” her dad Dave Elias said. “She’s mostly excited about being around other kids. She’s a social butterfly.”
Sporting the plain purple backpack and My Little Mermaid lunchbox she picked out herself, Eilidh wanted her dad to leave the house at 7 a.m. Doors didn’t open until 7:45 a.m., so he convinced her to wait for a little while.
“I’m really excited. I think the playground will be the most fun,” Eilidh said, adding she might know one boy in her class because they went to preschool together.
As a single dad, Elias said things can be challenging and chaotic. He was proud but nervous about his little girl starting her first day of “big school.”
“I’m a little nervous. She’s pumped. I don’t think she’ll be crying or anything like that,” he said. “So here she is, she’s going to school. It’s harder for me I think.”
ydentremont@hfxnews.ca
