Kindergarten

We’ve just decided for certain where Kira will go to Kindergarten. After spending three years researching educational styles, I had decided to homeschool Kira with a classical curriculum. I felt great about the decision and knew that she’d love the structure and would learn so much about her world. And then, my husband very gently said that he thought she’d really like a teacher that wasn’t “Mom”, that she responded very well to teachers and interacted with them differently than she does with me. And he was right. I saw that even though I didn’t want to. And I couldn’t quit my job just yet, so I really wouldn’t be able to homeschool her the way I wanted to, which in my mind would be something like a moneyed Victorian family that took their children on archeological digs and trips to the British museum. I might come up a little bit short. But I knew how I wanted her taught and I conceded that if I could find a Christian school with small class sizes, that used the curriculum I had picked out, that was nearby and reasonably priced, I’d send her. A likely scenario.

I plugged it all into Google, and it was the first hit. I visited the classroom and I loved it. I sent my husband to the open house to find something wrong with it and he went twice and couldn’t find anything. We went to the interview and they loved Kira. She showed them all that she knew and at the end they said, “You must be so pleased with how you’ve raised her.” Well, yes, thanks. I am. J

Now, I am excited about her school and how much she’ll learn and how well she’ll do. I have to remind myself that she’s going, not me, and I’ll have to content myself with her reports of her day. I can’t wait to help her with homework and chaperone the field trips and volunteer in the classroom and hopefully I”ll get a chance to do all of those things.

I look at her, and my eyes well up now. I see my new baby and look forward to her turning 1 and 2 and 3 and at the same time miss so much those years with Kira. She’s such a mature, well spoken little girl already and not the quirky, crazy toddler she was. She used to be so obsessed with ice cream, that when we’d play Chutes and Ladders she’d lick the ice cream card whenever it came up. It’s all crinkled and warped now. Once, at my friend Heather’s house, she asked if Squeegee could come home with us when we were leaving. Squeegee was her imaginary friend, and how she said “Luigi” as in Mario and Luigi. We asked her where he was and she said “he’s that little green guy in the corner.” So we winked and nodded and said “Oh sure, he can come.” Then all ran to stop her as she started to roll a watermelon out the front door. And at two, when Randy was working two jobs, and couldn’t get time to go Christmas tree shopping with us, we picked out a tree and brought it home ourselves. We put the lights on it together and then I plopped down in a chair. But she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from my computer and in front of the tree. She said “Oh, Mama, isn’t it beautiful?” and I stopped and paused and looked at her and said “Yes, it is.” That was the year she called me “Christmas Girl” and learned to sing “Up on the Housetop” with motions I made up and begged to go to the North Pole.

And now she’s going to Kindergarten… in 6 months, but it might as well be tomorrow. I remember being 16 and lying in bed at home and thinking how I’d blink and be headed off to school, and I was scared to live on my own. But I was wrong, I blinked and I’m sending my daughter to school and I’ll blink again and she’ll be in college.