School Days...School Days...

The First Day

I gave you a little wink and smile

As you entered my room today.

For I know how hard it is to leave

And know your child must stay.

You've been with him for five years now

And have been a loving guide,

But now, alas, the time has come

To leave him at my side.

Just know that as you drive away

And tears down your cheeks may flow

I'll love him as I would my own

And help him learn and grow.

For as a parent, I too know

How quickly the years do pass

And that one day soon it will be my turn

To take my child to class.

So please put your mind at ease

And cry those tears no more

For I will love him and take him in

When you leave him at my door.

I know that the last blog I posted said that I'd be giving an update of the summer. Well, the truth is, I've avoided the end of summer break for as long as I possibly can in fear of thinking more about this day. On the other hand, even though school has started (for Brian & I last week & Nolan today), summer technically isn't over yet, right? Although with the heat we've had all summer long, I'm more than ready for my favorite season to begin.

I keep asking myself HOW? I honestly don't know how we've gotten to this milestone. The way I've been blubbering about it, too, you'd think it's college and not Kindergarten. Nolan has always been excellent with adjusting. In fact, he's the kid at day care that usually threw a fit when I got there because he "wasn't ready to go home." He makes friends relatively easily and in all reality, he isn't much of a crier when it comes to emotional things (a attribute that we're working on him realizing it's okay to cry when he's sad, etc. and not just when he's whining about about something). So, it came as quite a shock to us last night when he declared he didn't want to go to Kindergarten. He really couldn't tell us why besides he was scared and "just because."

We tried to be conscientious about not talking about Kindergarten too much, but at the same time not ignoring it all together either. A happy medium with happy & positive words. He even seemed excited at orientation last week when he met his teacher & saw his classroom. So, last night at bedtime, we read The Night Before Kindergarten and The Kissing Hand. When he said his nightly prayers, he asked Jesus to "help him not be scared in Kindergarten," and he even gave me my very own kissing hand like in the book all on his own (talk about fighting back tears)!

This morning, he woke up later than usual for a school day since I was taking him. His very first words were he didn't want to go to Kindergarten. Ugh. Not what I wanted, expected, or needed to hear, but if it was his honest thoughts I needed to accept them and work through them. We had his choice of breakfast (sausage & a donut - ha!) and took our time getting ready. He never said another word about not wanting to go.

When I dropped him off, we went to the gym and he lined up with his class looking super nervous & unsure. He didn't really give me much of a smile, rather, just his nervous smile. He was trying to be so brave & for the outside person, they probably would have never suspected how he felt inside. But, oh, those little cues that only Mommy's know. I kissed him goodbye & told him I couldn't wait to hear all about his day. I walked to my car & cried. I am anxious to pick him up today just to hear all about it. I'm taking my little man to lunch (and of course, he's already told me he wants McDonald's). It definitely puts things into perspective with my view of the parents in my classroom even though I have big 4th graders, it's their last year in our primary building. They're facing a milestone, too.

We're so proud of you, Nolan Alan and just KNOW you will be great in school!!! We love you.

All I Really Need To Know

About How To Live and What To Do And How To Be, I Learned in Kindergarten.

by Robert Fulghum

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and

dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and

stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go

down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or

why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the

styrofoam cup; they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you

learned; the biggest word of all-- LOOK.

Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and

love and basic sanitation, ecology, and politics and the sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had

cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets

for a nap.

Or we had a basic policy in our nation and other

nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes.

And it is still true; no matter how old you are, when you go

out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.