School

My oldest daughter started her first day of kindergarten today. 

Do you remember the day YOU started? I find myself reliving happy moments from my childhood through my children. Today however I am realizing that my 5 yr old daughter most certainly is her own person. I was elated on my first day from school and was fast friends with fellow classmate Rachel Hamburg by the end of the day. Karis however was quiet, followed instructions but really didn't seem to be thrilled. The neighbor boy she's played with a bit was also in her class and I found them walking together to the pickup point, chatting like two mature adults. When I asked her if she'd had fun her quick and serious reply was "no." Her neighbor buddy retorted "well she had fun when she was with me!" Few!

Maybe I've played up kindergarten too much. I remember now that last winter she had asked "Does kindergarten have a roller coaster?!" "No dear, but they have super cool slides on the playground!" She must have thought that getting into kindergarten was like achieving nirvana. And now that life goes on as usual, well, yes, I'd be disappointed too. One way this mother-daughter pair are alike: always forecasting dreams of the fantastic only to be reminded that our feet still touch planet earth. No matter, this earth is filled with glimpses of the fantastical and I will forever encourage the enjoyment of such fleeting moments for such are the hopes of a world beyond and of a power greater then ourselves.

Woh, all that from a child's first day of school? I think I got off track, but it's so whimsical I don't want to erase it. I think my point was: we project our expectations on others, and when they don't respond in "right way" we wonder what's wrong with them. .....maybe that's what I mean. I've been up since 6 and I'm a night owl, so I'm really not sure anymore. Morning kindergarten will be a change in our daily routine at least. I am very proud though to say that we made it ON TIME! I believe the daily routine will be good for us.

 Hannah, my 3 year old is longing for school as well. She remembers being involved in Karis's preschool while I volunteered there often last year. We no longer qualify for head start however (yay) but want to save money at every turn still. Therefore, we have decided to keep Hannah at home. Luckily for her, I enjoy playing school still (nope never grew out of that.) so we set up our own little school area at the house and I'm stealing tactics I learned from my volunteering. Hannah is thrilled. She keeps asking me "so yo my cheacher? and the how i our s-chool?" YUP! However we all pretended to be jealous when Karis told us about getting to learn a song from a puppet today. That seemed to help her feel like she was in on something special too. So it's all working. So far. It'll be interesting to see where this part of the parenting journey takes us.