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Starting school can be a great adventure - exciting and maybe a little anxious for children and parents. Joing the hero of this story as she says bye to mom and starts off to school in anticipation of riding the bus and making friends.

Starting school is a big adventure for children and their parents!

The story in this book comes from my conversations with many mothers. They told me that starting school can be an anxious event for children and their moms. As moms, they worried about whether or not their child would get on the right bus to come home from school, make new friends, or find help on the playground if they had a problem. They asked: "Will my child be okay at school?"

Many of the moms said they had gotten off to a bad start at school when they were children. They wanted their children to be okay - to feel safe. The moms liked when the school arranged to have the bus at kindergarten orientation. When their children could get on and off the bus, these moms felt more comfortable. They also appreciated teachers and principals who let them stay with their children in the classroom.

We know that children who have the chance to play with neighborhood friends, attend high quality play groups or day care prior to kindergarten have an easier time starting school. Thehy learn to get along with other children and to relate to adults who are not their parents. They also learn about reading, writing and numbers in an informal way. They bring all this social and academic learning to the kindergarten classroom.