Ready or not, kindergarten happens. It’s ok to have mixed emotions about your child going to kindergarten. Focusing on gratitude and excitement can help make it easier.
School supplies, backpacks, and school forms – we have them all. Obviously, I knew it was coming. And yet…
How. Did. This. Happen?
In just one week our oldest child will begin kindergarten. And he is so excited. So ready. While we can savor these last few days at home together, Kindergarten is happening, whether I am ready or not.
Not Ready For Change
Life will be forever different. Instead of spending most of his time home, with us, he will spend most of his school year days with classmates and teachers.
I will miss him fiercely.
And so will his sisters.
It is hard to not dwell in sadness of what I will miss out on in his life. I will no longer have the front row seat for his school challenges and achievements. I realize this was true in preschool too, but he was only going two days, and now, FIVE!
Most of his activities and experiences at school will be learned only when he or a teacher shares it with us. Second-hand, after-the-fact.
I pray he loves school so much he can’t contain his excitement and wants to tell us ALL (and I do mean ALL) about it.
Excited for New Experiences
As this new season begins, despite sadness and a little bit of fear, I just cannot hold back my joy and excitement for all he will learn in this new adventure.
New friends. Personal responsibility. Art. Gym. Newfound independence. Social skills. Letters. Math. Science. New challenges. History. And oh, so much more!
And my favorite thing to think about?
Ready for New Skills
Reading.
Whether in kindergarten or first grade, he will go to school, and someday, when he is ready, he will READ!
Our son will take all those carefully practiced letters and sounds and something will click. He will start to see how individual letters link together to make words. Then he will begin to read simple words, and then sentences, and…suddenly…he will read for himself.
And he will be able to write those words and sentences.
A profound, life-long set of skills for communication and learning.
Instead of needing parents to read and write for them, our kindergarteners will soon do this for themselves. Suddenly, a wealth of information is available to them, in black and white.
Books. Magazines. Newspapers. Posters. Billboards. Instructions. This grateful mama’s blog (whoa, that is a strange thought)…And SO. Much. More.
But what excites me the most?
The Bible.
Our son will have the ability to read and study the Word of God for himself.
Take that in.
How exciting is THAT!?
No longer will he have only heard the stories of the loving sovereign creator of the world. No longer will he have to rely on verses we’ve helped him memorize (although we will continue to memorize more as a family).
He will be able to read it ALL for himself. He will experience how God speaks to His children through scripture.
The Bible will become alive, personal, and precious as he explores it on his own. It is my prayer that the Bible will become our son’s most treasured possession, and favorite book.
Choosing Gratitude
Focusing on gratitude helps each new stage of life feel less scary and sad. I am SO GRATEFUL he has the opportunity and gift of going to a safe, academically strong, public school in the United States.
We are privileged.
And so, with apprehension, sadness, joy, gratitude and elation, I am preparing myself to send him off on the school bus for his first day of school.
He is so excited to hop on that bus. He is ready to learn, ready for the independence, ready for new friends and ready for all kindergarten has in store for him.
And so, grateful for and expectant of how he will grow this year, I pray I will also be ready.
I choose to surrender my sadness and worry while trusting God with our son’s safety; He’s got this.
As I watch our son’s excitement and joy, I choose to dream and hope right alongside him. Ready or not, I can’t wait because he can’t wait.
Our son will do just fine out there in the little part of the world called kindergarten. In fact, I know he will thrive.
I will likely be one big mess of emotion as he steps onto the school bus that first day. For the sake of our son (and neighbors), I’ll do my best to keep it together. But I make no promises.