Ready for School

Last week we got Boo all registered for Kindergarten.


It's hard to believe that time has passed that quickly, and that we're entering the "school years". I feel like I'm at the precipice of a roller-coaster that's been clanking up the hill slowly, slowly, day after day, with diaper changes, sippy cups, potty-training, breakfast-snack-lunch-snack-dinner-dessert. Scripture study, story time, play time, quiet time, bath time, family prayer, personal prayers, brush teeth, stories, tuck in, and then doing it all again the next day.

I've enjoyed setting the schedule for things here at home. In that aspect of things, it's not entirely different from my days as a classroom teacher. I remember getting the plaque for my school room door with my name on it and thinking, "this is MY room, and MY kids, and I can finally run it like I want to (within reason)."

Here at home, if I feel like it, we make cookies! If I want, I'll toss in a load of laundry or tell the kids that today...TODAY my children, we will be organizing closets. We might go to the park or the grocery store or perhaps BOTH! And like little ducklings, they follow along with what I'm doing, as I set the pace, the direction, and the spirit of our home.



With a child going to school, our days will be a bit more regimented. No more driving to a grandparent's house because we feel like it. No more hanging out in our jammies all day. We'll have homework, fixed hair, reading practice, math practice, sack lunches, permission slips, parent-teacher conferences, troubles with friends, troubles in classes, tests, tough questions, etc. I feel like once school starts, it will be all downhill, and crazy and out of control. Someone else will be in the driver's seat (or at least the passenger's seat), and I can't help feeling a little sad, and a little anxious about letting go.



I remember my first year of teaching and the hours that I spent with those kids. I thought about them, worried about them, and even dreamed about them! And when a student would come up to me, tap me on the arm and accidentally say, "Mom?", we would laugh about it. But the truth was, they saw more of me on a school day than they did their own mothers! I remember reading books aloud to them during our downtime, and seeing their little bodies physically relax and go to that imaginative world that only books can take you. It's a great memory. I remember witnessing a group of kids tease and ostracize a student because she was different and pulling them into "my office" to talk about how we treat one another in OUR classroom. Although I didn't have any children at the time, I felt that weight of being the best example to them that I could. I felt the importance of not only teaching them fractions and vocabulary words, but of being kind and honest and respectful. Sure, I wanted them to be successful students, but even more than that, I wanted them to be good people.


Have I prepared my own kids for the world outside our safe home?

Will they know what to do, and where to turn when the time comes to make difficult choices? Will they make good friends and be leaders and examples to those friends, or will they blindly follow whatever the popular crowd is doing? Will they have confidence in themselves? Will they be kind to others? I hope the answer is YES. All I can do is prepare them as best I can...

Then send them on their way.