Another Year, Another Kindergartner

Scrolling back through the posts I've written this summer, it's painfully obvious just how busy we were. I try not to write much when there's nothing much going on, but that was rarely the case. This is perhaps the first year both kids will really remember the summer...based on how old they are. I hope they remember it fondly and not as a mishmash of dizzying, but fun experiences.

School started so early this year. It wasn't even late August yet. But then, something had to curb my need for overscheduling, I guess. And I was so excited to see Mam off to kindergarten, with the expectations that she'd be very, very happy there and I'd be happy to have the kids in the same place.

Before the big Wednesday first day of school, Mam had a lemonade social at the kindergarten where she got together with her future classmates and got to meet her new teacher. After all that posing at Disney World, Mam was happy as a clam to pose with her latest princess. Looks familiar, doesn't it?This one, she gets to keep visiting for the rest of the year. And she'll only have to compete for attention with 19 other kids rather than a whole theme park full.

The teachers took all the kids in the classroom to read a story and left the parents out on the playground. Since we were a couple of minutes late, Mam wasn't sure what to make of that, but I got away with escorting her halfway into the classroom...just enough that she could see that she knew other kids in there...and then quickly making my way back out.

Tuesday, I took the kids to my hairdresser for haircuts. Smunch's hair had been cropped so short during the summer, that I just had her tidy it up so it would grow out nicely. Mam, on the other hand, said emphatically that she wanted her hair cropped up to HERE! (with her hand up above her ear). I refused, but she had it cut as short as I was willing to go. I really prefer the long hair, but not the long hair-combing battles, so she gets her way.

Wednesday finally came and I had the kids dressed 'just so' and ready for their first day. Cute clothes, new backpacks, new lunch bags, combed hair, brushed teeth. Mam was excited. Smunch seemed happy, but very slightly apprehensive.The whole family took the short walk to the kindergarten yard, where Mam immediately ran off to play with her friends, including her Sarah who is in her class for the first time this year. After a few minutes, the bell rang and Mam flew past me, "Bye, Mommy!" she waved as she joined the line.So very, very different from her brother. She trotted happily off into the classroom with barely a glance behind her.

We wandered over to the "big kid playground" where Smunch quickly found his line and stood in it, still looking slightly anxious.But it all went away when he met his nice, new teacher. She's quite fabulous, I hear. My interactions with her to date would certainly suggest that's true. Very, very nice with a great reputation.I'm happy about his teacher and about the kids (and parents!) in his class. It's shaping up to be a really good year and in the end, he seemed happy to be off to second grade.Second grade. That used to sound so very old!

And I went off to the Welcome Back Coffee to overvolunteer myself for yet another year. I avoided becoming anyone's room mom, but signed up to help the room mom in both classrooms. I'll be in Mam's room weekly to help out and may be taking both classes to the library from time to time. I'm looking forward to it.

What I didn't realize is that while everything is new and different for the kids, it's really kind of new and different for me too. The volunteering hasn't really kicked into gear yet, so I'm feeling a little adrift in a big sea of parents and kids. All the same friends are still there, but we're all doing different things with different routines than we had last year. I'm hoping that as soon as things firm up a little and I'm getting into the classroom again, I'll feel like I've got a "place" there. Until then, at least my blog is up to date.

It's now Monday and the fourth day of school for both kids. To my great relief, they seem to be getting happier and happier with school. They're both happy to go and happy to stay. I don't know how it could be going better. This is the first year it's actually been easy!

Kindergarten continued

Don't be alarmed. I have no intention of changing my blog into a day-by-day account of my child's adventures in kindergarten, but it seemed like some things bore mentioning here, now that Smunch is in his third day of kindergarten.

In a lot of ways, I'm realizing that this is my summer. The contract for my most reliable employer lapsed at the end of July. Yeah, they're renewing it, but they're being slow about it. (Thank you!) That means I don't have any work to do and since the level of babysitting I was getting is falling off rapidly, that's a good thing.

On the downside, Mam doesn't start school until after Labor Day. Well, that's not a downside really, but I've suddenly realized that I don't have a clue what to do with her all by herself. She's sitting here grinning at me like a Cheshire cat, as if to say "I'm so freakin' cute and you never had time to notice" or "I'm a complete nut job and you never noticed before." I'm not sure which.



Regardless, it's oddly relaxing to come home with no real agenda at all. Yesterday's agenda was laundry. Laundry almost never makes "the agenda" normally. It's sort of an aside to the real agenda, if it gets done at all.

Smunch still says he likes kindergarten, although I asked him who his favorite teacher was and he named the teacher who is technically an aide in his class. Not sure why. On the flip side, I am completely overwhelmed by kindergarten. And it has nothing to do with Smunch. The sheer volume of things to donate to, fundraisers, PTA, classroom volunteering, ice cream social, family picnic, walk-a-thon, phone-a-thon, "spirit wear" orders...and the list goes on and on. Tonight, they'll get their first homework. And so it begins. I'm completely paralyzed. Anyone want some cookie dough? Wrapping paper? Prefab pretzels? No?

I always wanted to be an involved parent at school, but I feel like I'm swimming in a vast sea of unfamiliarity here. And an old feeling is coming back...a feeling I haven't had since I was in school. It's that feeling of interminable school. It just stretches out in front of you forever and ever when you're little. I feel that. And it's so different from anything I felt with Smunch in preschool. Preschool was fun. This is serious business.

A friend of mine said that preschool is like a gentle stream compared to the rushing river of kindergarten. She couldn't have made a more apt comparison. I wonder if I've been swept away and I don't even know it yet!