On Having A Kindergartner

First, the good things... Nathan loves school. He is thriving. It is a joy to take a child to school who is excited about going. He looks forward to almost every part of school and it is so much fun to hear about his day. He loves his teacher and from what we've seen, she is doing a fabulous job. He is learning to read and it is so exciting to listen to him read to us in the evenings. He appears to have a lot of friends. He has friends in each of the three kindergarten classes and seems to make friends easily. That is such a blessing. He is not the trouble maker in class and doesn't even appear to be one of the difficult ones. We have meet-the-teacher-night tomorrow night so we will have a better idea of how he's doing, but he has managed to stay out of trouble so far. Mommy hasn't been called to the side or told to wait for just a minute at pick up. (Thank goodness for that because Mommy doesn't like to get in trouble--I am sure I would revert to a little girl with sweaty palms and nervous stomach like when I was waiting at the Principal's office when I was a kindergartner--I wasn't even in trouble, just running an errand for my teacher.) We have managed to get into a great routine of going to bed early and getting up early without much fuss from anyone. Our schedule has filled up with all sorts of fun activities which has complicated Sarah's life, but she hasn't complained too much. All in all, Nathan is doing wonderfully and we couldn't have asked for a better first few weeks of kindergarten.

Okay, so how come there are some side effects no one ever told me about? Well, for those who have not yet experienced the joy of having and loving a kindergartner, here is my public service announcement:

As your sweet, loving, child (who adores you and worships you, by the way) begins kindergarten, you should be aware that some person or persons at that kindergarten will teach this very same child the arts of sarcasm and attitude. Yes, I am talking about the same precious little 5 year old boy who left your house on that first day of school. Suddenly, you might hear that sweet voice that used to call out randomly throughout the day, "I love you, Mom!" saying things like, "Why are you doing that? Why do you get to eat cereal while we get nothing?" (The second statement could even follow an evening when you were feeling horrible from mastitis, but managed to make a lovely dinner of fish sticks and steamed veggies for all three children and hand feed the youngest who isn't quite able to get her own food into her mouth yet. You might have managed to make yourself a plate and then proceed to empty your plate onto the children's plates as they asked for seconds and thirds. You might have then managed to get all three children bathed, lotioned and jammied; clean up the kitchen; nurse the baby and start picking up toys before finally getting a little grumpy from fatigue, low blood sugar and the achy miserable feeling that goes along with mastitis.) Just an example, of course. You might also hear the same voice forgetting that for the last few years you have worked so hard to teach him to say, "Please, Thank you, Excuse me?" and instead say things like "Huh? What? I want..." You might also see this same child, who used to delight in helping out around the house wanting only to please you, suddenly forgetting to put his dirty clothes in the hamper and too busy to even attempt making his bed. Another strange side effect, as yet unexplained by this kindergarten mom, is the sudden use of baby talk by the new kindergartner. Our particular kindergartner didn't even really use baby talk as he was learning to talk. He has almost always been clear and articulate. This seems to contradict the other signs that he is growing up. He appears to be heading toward teenagerdom in all other aspects, but baby talk? Not getting that. Along the same lines of heading down the road to teenville, the kindergartner may suddenly become moody and sulky. This behavior can at least be explained by exhaustion. It is a lot of work to be a kindergartner and they do have long days and weeks. Not to mention, our kindergartner has an early Saturday involving soccer and an early Sunday involving Sunday school and church.

We would have liked to have been warned about what to expect from our kindergartner, but as with all first children we are learning about all of this as we go. We are transferring much of our patience from our 2 1/2 year old who isn't requiring as much of our patience anymore, to our new kindergartner. It appears this is what parenting will be like, going from one stage to the next, finding the pros and cons of each stage and figuring out how to manage them. Though at times the attitude coming from the new kindergartner might make us want to put him in his room until he's 30 , we must understand that he is testing and experimenting with his new found independence and it is all a part of growing up. That is what we keep telling ourselves anyway.

In other news, Hannah has followed in her brother's footsteps with her social debut hitting just at 2 years 9 months. She wants to play with her brother and his friends constantly. (This is unfortunate timing, considering he and most of his little friends have the same attitude and find her "annoying". However, some of his friends seem to love her and want to play with her and pick her up and carry her around. Not sure if this is a good thing or something we should be worried about?--these are generally the boys without younger siblings so to them she is new and like a little doll to play with.) She is also very interested in what we have planned for the day. She is not too excited about the days with nothing on the calendar when we hang out at home, but she manages to find something fun to do. It looks like she will be ready for school in January (sniff, sniff), but Mommy will certainly miss having her home. She loves her gymnastics and would like to go every day. She finally has something that is just hers. She is fortunate to have a little sister who sits quietly in the corner chewing on toys and watching the activity so that she can enjoy The Little Gym class on Friday mornings. She has become increasingly chatty and will talk to just about anyone who listens. It is such a delight to spend the day with her. We have come a long way.

Along with our busy schedule has come very little consistency for Sarah. We didn't realize just how much we stayed home and let Sarah get her rest over the summer. She tolerates her broken and scattered naps very well, but she has begun fighting sleep at night. This could also be related to all of the teeth that are coming in and a million other things that we stopped trying to figure out when both of the other children just wouldn't sleep. We are back to a game of musical beds, but now the number of players has increased. Nothing new to us, just new to Sarah. She had to realize her genes at some point, right?

(Pictures are from Hannah's Little Gym class last week--Hannah and her friend Genevieve. Nathan in his soccer uniform before he got his green jersey--his favorite color--with his friends and team mates, William and Joseph. One of Hannah and Sarah on the couch.)

Once again we have to use our soundless video, which is a shame because it is more comical with the sound. Let me see if I can help: "No, go the other way!" "Red team, go the other way!" "Green team, go the other way!" "No pushing!" "No hands!"

Nathan's team has decided they will be called The Lizards--the kids chose the name, can you tell? They are green and the one girl on the team seemed the most excited about being the slimy, green lizards. Nathan is number 5 and you can see him almost score a goal. You will recognize one of the coaches as our Daddy. The Lizards' other coach is also Coach Joe.

Untitled from tsechief on Vimeo.