Skipping Town

There's a very specific feeling to the first day of school. Both girls clearly felt it last night; Greta was up a few times during the night, restless, upset. But they were both pretty excited this morning, and they put on their chosen first-day outfits and ate the first-day muffins I baked last night and gamely took first-day pictures on the porch, since it was raining. We went to the bus stop, and Greta followed Lucia onto the bus with nary a backward glance. Andrew cried, as he did when Lucia went to kindergarten. Then we hustled to school, where things were EVEN MORE INSANE than I'd expected. Some kids and parents were outside, since the rain had stopped; some were inside; and my kids? Nowhere to be found. I left Andrew outside to wait, and I went inside, where the kindergartners were supposed to be lining up in the gym. No Greta. I waited and waited. The room kept filling up with kids, not mine. I tried to look for Lucia; no Lucia. I finally found a volunteer, who happen...

Today was Lucia's last day of kindergarten. The year flew, and it seems like just last week we were sending Lucia off on the school bus for the very first time, Andrew crying openly in front of the neighbors. Then racing to the school to meet her in the crowd of kids lining up behind the school--and not finding her. She found me, smiling in amusement. She had a great year. She made the adjustment from small nurturing private preschool to big chaotic public school in a snap--I can't believe how much is required of these littlest ones, and how they rise to it. She loved being on the bus, made bus friends, made lots of other friends, learned to read and spell (well, sort of...she forgets to add vowels) and write in capital and lowercase letters. She learned about ants. (That was big.) An interest in space and planets was sparked. She learned funny songs. She found the boys in her class hilarious. She bought pizza for lunch on Fridays and carried a stuffed animal in her back pack...

“We are going to the zoo. The first thing we are going to do is go on the merry-go-round.” Yesterday, Lucia brought home a photocopy of a writing assignment she’d done at school, one that wasn’t going to be sent home until the end of the year. Her teacher had added a post-it that said Lucia had been proud of her work and wanted to show us. Indeed, when I talked to her about it, she was incredibly proud and excited--the crucial part of it being that she did it entirely herself. Planning what to say, sounding out the words, writing them down. A truly exciting kindergarten moment.

Huge milestone last week: Lucia's first day of kindergarten. It seems like we've been preparing for this for over a year, and in many ways we have--with Lucia nearly six years old, her pre-K program last year focused intensely (well, intensely but playfully) on kindergarten prep. Writing, counting, reading readiness, kindergarten routines. She was so well-prepared that by the time the big day arrived last Thursday, she felt fully ready. When I tried to give her some last-minute instructions, she said, "Mommy, I already know that from the pre-K 5's." She was excited, and, as she admitted, "a little bit scared," mostly about the bus. And it's really a big deal, the bus--she gets on, gets to school, gets back on the bus, and has to get off the bus on her own. There's no one announcing the stops, or calling names, or making sure all the kids who are supposed to get off the bus do, indeed, get off. The day before her first day, we took a walk to...