Kindercamp!

I really can't express how excited Miss A is for Kindergarten to start. I hope the excitement sticks and we aren't in for a rude awakening! I have flip flopped on the public school/ home school choice numerous times before making this decision and my stress/depression levels as of late I think are a direct result of that. I've had some pretty horrific nightmares on the subject as well that I won't terrify you with... I can only cross my fingers at this point that this decision will not be regretted. I keep telling myself that it is only one year. That can easily be remedied if we change our minds. But for now, we are letting this little social bee have her time and let me reiterate just HOW excited she is... She's been counting down the days, every day looking at the calendar. Every time we drive past the school, she waves saying "hello schooooool. See you in X days".

Tonight we took her to Kindercamp. This is separate from the school's open house, I suppose to not overwhelm the kiddos. But even with just the Kinders there, the place was a madhouse. AEK got excited every time she saw someone she knew. We put all her supplies in various boxes and then introduced ourselves to the teacher. She seemed nice. Very Kindergarten-y. She gave her teacher her note and was returned a hug saying that she had never received anything on the first day before. We visited her classroom next and she just beamed sitting there in her little mini-chair at her mini-table. When they picked out lockers, she went to a different wall to choose hers instead of the wall all the previous kids had picked from. She listened very intently to the story about going to Kindergarten instead of making faces like the kids around her. Every time she caught our eyes she just grinned from ear to ear.

I feel sad that she will do all these new things and I won't be there on an hourly basis to catch those smiles :( But for now I think this is what we need to do. I pray every moment that she flourishes here and her teacher is a good fit for her, challenging her. (I won't go into my misgivings on that for now. I hope they can quickly be dismissed.) I fear for Little J too. He will miss her greatly. But we can have our alone time together where we can begin to learn, start potty training and go on fun playdates together. Poor A will miss all these from now on, going to her favorite places. I hope she loves school so much that she can overlook these things. I must end this. I need to go find an anti-depressant now....

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