The School Years

Nathan and I went to kindergarten registration this morning. Nathan was very excited about it. Lately he has really outgrown his "shyness" about new things. I talked with him about what was going to happen the night before. I told him he was going to go to the kindergarten room and I was going to talk with the principal in the auditorium, that I would be back after a little while. We walked into the kindergarten room and he was just sooo excited to be there. He immediately ran to the back of the room where the art supplies were. They had to call to him to come back and get a name tag... and then he was off again. As I was leaving I saw some of the other mother's cajoling their child to walk into the room and some kids were in tears. Not Nathan... he was ready to play. I was (and still am) slightly worried because he looked so young compared to the rest of the kids. He will be one of the younger kids with a June birthday but I just didn't expect the other kids to be so much taller..... and calm (but that may have been more a factor of them being scared than being more mature). I know that he's academically ready for kindergarten... it's the whole self control/maturity thing that has me worried.

Anyway, I did the paperwork in the auditorium and met another mother of a june baby (we are forming a support group). I learned that dress code is collared shirts with no logos on them. In the winter they may sweatshirts but they need the collared shirt underneath. In the spring shorts need to come to their knees. I learned what an IST teacher does and that the PTA is "very involved" (read lots of sales). I learned that the principal, guidance counselor, IST and librarian all cover two of the elementary schools. Then I went back to pick up Nathan from the room after about a half hour. He had not had a chance to have his vision test so we got in line. He was bouncing off the walls. He couldn't stand still... he was pointing at everything, asking what it was and talking about everything that he was seeing. The other kids were just standing with their parents quietly... again, are they more mature or were they just a little more intimidated while he felt right at home? We get to the front of the line and they take Nathan and another little girl in to show them what they have to do. They took them up to the chart and asked them to tell them what the three pictures were (umbrella, house and apple). Then the little girl in front of us went and stood on the line, covered her one eye and read everything perfectly... she did the other eye and then left. Now it's Nathan's turn. He stands on the line, puts the patch over his eye and almost immediately peeks around the patch to read the chart. After many tries of this, I stood and held the patch and when he read it I could tell that he was guessing. So instead of starting at the smaller print they started at the large print and he could only read about 2 lines down with that eye. Then they did the other and he did slightly better with that eye but still not the small print. Finally they had him look at really small pictures up close and he did fine with that. The person giving the test said he has about 20/40 and 20/30 vision. That it was still acceptable but we may want to take him to an eye doctor before school starts.

Right before his turn Nathan had turned to me and said, I'm going to be silly. So I wasn't sure if he was just being silly or if he really couldn't see. When I got him home, I asked him why he kept peeking around the patch when he was reading the chart. He said because he couldn't see it with his eye covered. I said does the TV ever look fuzzy... and he said no. Then I asked do the books that mommy reads ever look fuzzy and he said sometimes. So I stood with a book and asked him to tell me when it got fuzzy as I backed away and I didn't get very far before he told me it was fuzzy. So I sit down with him for the Talk, "Nathan, you are going to have to go see an eye doctor. He may tell you that you need glasses." Nathan's response: YES!!! I was all ready to tell him that it was ok to have glasses because both mommy and daddy and both sets of grandparents have glasses.... but I guess he didn't need any of those reassurances. He was very excited about getting glasses. He sure is full of surprises.

I think I was probably more nervous about this visit than he was. He is still very excited to go to kindergarten. When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was at bed time he said "Going on the schoolbus". Poor little nicholas (who always says the same thing that Nathan says) also said "Going on the school bus"... when I told him that he had not gone on the school bus today he said "YES I DID!!" and started to get upset.... so instead of arguing with him I just let it go. Poor little guy.... he just wants to be big enough to do things BY MYSELF!, like his big brother...but he's just not big enough yet. One day he will be.

Now it's getting real.... the whole elementary school, growing up thing. Pretty soon he's not going to be my preschooler anymore. In some ways it seems like just yesterday he was that little guy in the lion costume at halloween... but in other ways, that seems like a whole lifetime ago and we have all changed so much since then. I guess that's all a part of parenting... You get forever in an instant.