Will My Kid Survive Kindergarten?

This past month my daughter and four million other five year olds in the United States started kindergarten. Standing next to them on that appointed day were eight million of us parents and caregivers, each a basket case of emotion. How could someone who was entirely dependant on us for survival only a few years ago (and for some forgettable moments this past week) survive the perils of kindergarten? When did she become so grown up? Will she be able to speak up for herself? Will she be lonely? Can she handle the rough and tumble playground politics or just sit still during class?

And then I pause. She can brush her own teeth. She can reach the light switch. She puts her own clothes on before waking us parental figures up, at times with “interesting” results. She is the one who lectures me to keep two hands on the steering wheel and will defend her little sister when I speak with a little too much tone in my voice. She will bargain, with surprising deftness, for her own interests. And she can tell us with agonizing precision what, when, and how she wants something with the seemingly irrefutable logic of a 5 year old mind. Now I’m thinking she will be just fine and it is the teacher and her classmates who we should worry about.

I am so excited about her first step into the academic world. Yes, it is just kindergarten, but I see it as a powerful partner in nurturing a great love of learning. These days she is brimming with wonder. Each statement I make is followed by two questions. “What are they talking about on the radio?,” she will ask on our morning drive to daycare. “Oh, just the Syrian conflict and crushing impact of the recession on real families,” I explain. I am hoping school will help with that too.

So with all that in my head I asked her one day if there was anything about kindergarten that scared her. Unfamiliar faces? How to find the bathroom? High expectations? She gave me a rather nonchalant look and said , “Hmmm, I am not scared of anything”. Now that’s my girl.

Source: Playground Dad

Hello, Kindergarten! Goodbye, Little Girl!

Today was my five-year-old's ninth day of Kindergarten. I am not ashamed to admit that watching her little body disappear into the large crowd of students entering the building was harder today than it was her first day.

She has a great teacher and is so excited to leave for school every morning. Not wanting to go to school isn't the issue. We haven't really had to deal much with seperation anxiety, and for this I am grateful. I expect this is due to the fact that she had two years of preschool at Fayette Co-operating Preschool and Kindergarten. I know her time there has made the transition to Kindergarten a lot easier for her. Too bad I didn't spend that time preparing myself!

I'm a bit of an emotional wreck this morning and slightly unsure as to why. I guess I am trying to figure out when, or should I say, how, we got to this place. I guess I am also desperately searching for a way to get back time that has gone by. I am realistic though and know that doing so is impossible.

I love the person that she is becoming and the fact that she wakes up so excited to go to school. I adore the way that she approaches each new day and I am so excited to listen as she shares with me the lessons that each day brings. But, the truth is, each morning when I walk that sweet little face to school and watch her saunter through the door and down the hall, a little piece of me dies. I know that she can't stay "Daddy's Little Girl" forever, and I have accepted that fact. (Okay, not really.) I just want to be there to protect her always and guard her innocence.

So, this morning, I tip my hat and raise my cup of coffee and box of tissues (for the cold that I am still battling) to not just my parents, but to any parent who has ever had to find their own way again after sending their first child off to Kindergarten. I know that more often than not, it is harder on us parents than it is our children.

God's love and blessings!