FARMINGTON – Looking around him at all the parents greeting their kindergartners after the first day of school Wednesday, 7-year-old Sawyer Zundel stood tall.

“It seems like I was in kindergarten not that long ago, at all,” he said gravely. “And now I’m a second-grader.”

Another school year is just starting, and Zundel – along with kids all over SAD 9 and SAD 58 – went back to school Wednesday.

While the first day of school can be a terrifying prospect for everyone involved – teachers, school administrators, parents, and particularly kids – it seems to have been a good day, all around.

It was great to be back, Zundel said. “I liked drawing a picture of my favorite thing I did during summer vacation,” he said. “It was going hiking with my mom.”

Kindergartner Madeline Slaughter, 5, said she also had a great day. She liked seeing the class puppet, Mr. M, swinging on the swings. Her mother, Kerri Boyd, said her daughter ran right into the classroom and sat down, without any tears. “After I dropped her off, I got a little emotional,” she said.

There were no tears in Mary Paradis’ kindergarten class at Mallet School, she said.

“It was a fantastic day. It was absolutely fantastic.” The kids listened and seemed genuinely happy to be there, she said. “They all wanted to come back tomorrow.”

Things were going smoothly in SAD 58, too, district representative Andrea Adams said Wednesday.

“We had a full day – a full menu,” she said. “The kids here (Phillips Elementary School) all seem to be pretty well adapted. I’m watching them come in and out – it’s just another day at school for them,” she said.

In kindergarten through ninth grade, classes started at 8:10 a.m. and ended at 2:30 p.m., Adams said.

In Wilton’s Cushing School, secretary Zetta Wojick gushed about the incoming students. “It was wonderful,” she said. “It’s going great so far.”

Back in Farmington, Mallett School Principal Tracy Douglass said it had been a busy, but fun day all round. After a summer full of preparations for the teachers and administrators, everyone’s happy to have the kids back, she said.

Especially the newest ones, perhaps. “Everybody is always sort of bowled over by the kindergartners when they first show up,” she said. “They’re so innocent and sweet looking.”