What a whirlwind week it has been. That first day. The consequent days when I was sick and couldn’t even drop him to bus stop or see him immediately when he was back really showed me how very different life is now. Below are the surprising things I learnt in the past seven days of him going to Kindergarten, that I’m working on and learning to accept.
- Waking up so early in the morning to get him ready for school sucks much more than my friends led me to believe.
- No matter how prepared I am, I’m constantly running errands to the store for clothes, snacks etc.
- He needs to have a healthy and filling options in lunch which meet his approval because he will only eat only three quarters of it. If I give him a full meal like home, he will eat only quarter.
- I never know what he’s experienced or how he handled it for a major part of his day. My heart hurts when he says, ” i felt sad, when … ” or ” I felt angry when …” and there’s nothing I can do about it. To help him or make myself feel better. I constantly worry if he’s having a good day and i just have to deal with it.
- When he talks about everyone he interacts with , I need to be neutral. I can only reassure him that everyone is good. This is specially hard when the consequent story clearly shows a child was being momentarily mean. It’s hard to explain to your child to be kind, while maintaining self respect.
- Having things ready the night before, like his bag and lunch supplies makes things much easier.
- For kids bad words are extremely funny. Words that are borderline offensive (and hilarious out of the mouths of kids) I have to tell him to leave that kind of talk at school.
- Asking him about his day is best to do end of the day, when he’s most relaxed and ready to talk to postpone sleeping.
- Mom, dad and sister are expected to adhere to the school standards, vehemently. Though school rules and expectations are wonderful, it’s hard for parents to follow since they know so few of them, themselves. And it makes it a little hard to discipline since we too are “expected to be boss of ourselves. “
- Hardest of all for me is that he is spending 3/4 of his time away from me, growing up, absorbing things that are transforming him into something just a little different every afternoon he comes back. After, he goes for extracurricular class or playing with friends, comes back home has dinner and it’s almost time for bed. I miss him being with me flying around the house, screaming his lungs hulk style (Never thought I would miss that).
The biggest surprise though, came over the weekend. This picture might seem like squiggles. But it’s going to be forever marked in my memory as a sign of my son growing at an astronomical rate. He spent an hour with me playing quiz show (probably how his teacher does it). He asked two sets of twenty questions about what is appropriate and what is not, what is safe and what is not and questions from history and science and gave me tick marks on a piece of post it on the wall (yes, it was uber cute!).
After that, he put this post it on the kitchen wall. Why you may ask. His words verbatim :
“This is what I want for lunch in school. Peanut butter sandwich, cheese sandwich, egg sandwich OK.
Tomato, paratha Not Okay.”
The daily lunch battles begin. I wonder what the year ahead holds.
Oh honey. You will get into a routine that works for you and your family. Enjoy the crazy. Documenting in your blog will give you so much to look back on as you face the new challenges of raising your family.
My daughter is experiencing the same thing. Keep telling her she will get into a routine.
You will so get a routine down! It’s a tough adjustment
I remember those days (and am kind of reliving that know with my first in middle school). Enjoy these days!
Life has been nuts for us lately and this post reminded me that it’s the little things — like someone’s food wish list — that makes the small moments count just as much as the big moments.
My kid is only three and I can only imagine what it will be like to send him to kindergarten. Great tip on when to ask about his day. I would have never thought about that, especially since most kids prolong bedtime. I will use that!
My daughter just started Kindergarten last month. My one sad point is that she said she got hit by a ball in gym class. She doesn’t really eat her lunch either even though she eats hot lunch from the school. I hope we both get used to our kids going to school.