My son started kindergarten last fall, and I worried about so many things. But suddenly, I blinked, and it’s May, and I am starting to reflect on all those worries I had in August.
Worry #1: Will he make friends?
Yes, he made lots of friends. He’s been to birthday parties (we are very familiar with Urban Air now), sees his classmates at basketball games, and recognizes kids from the bus when we go on walks around our neighborhood. He is excited to come home and tell me everything about his classmates (kindergarten drama is better than an episode of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, let me tell you). He lets me know when someone in his class got a haircut and who had a dentist appointment.
Worry #2: How will our family adjust to this new schedule?
This was a huge worry of mine. My son’s school starts before 7:30, and we knew getting him on the bus early would be a challenge for all of us. Then we got our estimated time of arrival for the bus a few days before school started – 6:36 AM. We gave it a very, very valiant effort of getting up before 6 AM to get him on the bus, but by fall break, I did something I thought I’d never do – I became a morning car rider mom! We both wake up now around 6:50 and have plenty of time to get into the car rider line to get him to school on time. That extra hour of sleep is well worth it for all of us. Plus, he still rides the bus home, so he still gets his fill of the bus!
We also decided to opt out of any fall extracurriculars. Our son loves soccer, but we knew we needed a few months of no extra stuff to get on board with this new elementary school schedule, so we skipped fall soccer season.
Worry #3: Will he like his teacher?
He didn’t just like his teacher, he LOVES her. He also has loved many other adults in his building, including his guest teacher filling in for his teacher’s maternity leave, his music and art teachers, his P.E. teacher, and his STEM teacher. He also loves talking about his principal and assistant principal, and he really loves it when his principal’s dog gets to visit. He has built a special relationship with his school librarian. I am so grateful his school still has one on staff and that she is continuing to instill a love of reading to students at his school! He has come home calmly, teaching his little brother how to correctly treat books, just like his librarian taught him. When he told his librarian we were visiting a friend in Springfield this summer and he’d like to check out a book about Abraham Lincoln, she sent him home with seven Lincoln books that week (and we read them all on time because he respected her library rules so much!).
Worry #4: Will he be safe?
I spend 40+ hours a week in my own classroom at my own school, so school safety is something I think about daily. I think a big part of my worries about safety stems from the fact that on day one, I didn’t know anyone in the building. But now I do know the friendly faces in the office (which is locked up tight!) and who to ask if I have a question. Being comfortable with the adults and the building myself has decreased my worries about his safety as the year continued on.
Worry #5: Am I ready for him to be in kindergarten?
As our oldest, he is the guinea pig for all things parenting for us. But the truth was, when August rolled around, HE was so ready to go to kindergarten that I could not even fathom feeling anything but excited for him. My feelings went from bittersweet and nostalgic to proud and confident in him.
So if you have attended a kindergarten round-up over the last few weeks and are struggling with your feelings, I completely understand. I was just there a year ago! Now I am a mother to an almost-first grader, and there are some pretty great things about that. He can read me entire stories in a Frog and Toad book and writes in a one-sentence-a-day journal every night. He can figure out simple math problems and figure out how many days’ worth of milk we have left in the fridge when we are making our grocery list. He is becoming more independent, smarter, faster, and stronger every single day. First grade is going to be great.
