Ms. Crazy Preschooler No Longer

The long, long awaited Kindergarten has finally started, and I can no longer call this girl Ms. Crazy Preschooler. I’m not sure what I’m going to call her! She was rather nervous about riding the bus, but when she got home, she promptly exclaimed that the bus ride was her favorite part (along with a lot of other really great parts). She was excited to recognize one of the kids in her class, and very excited about the opportunity to have library next week and check out her very own book to bring home in her backpack. All morning today she could hardly stand waiting to go back for day two, and she was bitterly disappointed there was no school on Saturday so she couldn’t go again tomororw.

She was well prepared for kindergarten. She knew her address, phone number, all of her middle and last names, her parents’ names, her teacher’s name, which bus to get on, and all the essential information. There was no wistfulness about leaving me, nor did I expect any.

HOWEVER, it turns out that while I was preparing her all summer, I should have been preparing her little brother. He understood that she was going to kindergarten. He understood he was not going to kindergarten. He was happy about her new backpack that arrived at the exciting last minute, and not a bit jealous that he wasn’t wearing one. He went to the open house at her school and admired her classroom. He was looking forward to special activities with me, and a lot of attention. He bounced down to the bus stop with her and understood that she would be getting on the bus and he would not be, and that was all OK.

But he was not prepared for the bus to drive off with her! He broke out into uncontrollable sobs. He was unable to be comforted. He just cried the most painful kind of cry a little guy could cry. So we sat on the sidewalk and he cried. We walked down the block and he cried. We sat on our front steps and he cried and cried and cried, and I finally was able get to get him calmed down enough so that he could tell me why he was so upset: he was terrified she would not be alright on the big bus and that she was leaving forever and not coming back.

So, we had a lot of discussions throughout the concerned three hours that she was gone to afternoon kindergarten about how we would go back to the corner at 3:00 and wait for the bus to bring her back. He was so relieved when the bus came bumbling back up the hill.

She was touched that that he was concerned, and then they threw sand at each other all afternoon and got into so much trouble they had to be separated, admonished into different parts of our property.