First Day of Kindergarten

It happens for nearly all kids, the first day of school. I can still see the picture my mom and dad took of me prior to starting Kindergarten at Painted Rock Elementary School in Poway. My teacher was Mrs. Kramer. Needless to say that was nearly 37 years ago. Wow, where did the time go?

Today it was Zoom’s turn to start forging his education trail. As with many parents you always want your child to excel and succeed. Hopefully that will be the case with my son as he will be one of the older (and taller) kids in his class. We made the decision to hold off sending him last year (4 year old, who would turn 5 in Nov) as I did not want him to be the youngest in his class. This is what I went through and while I don’t fault my parents at all, year later they wished they would have held me back.

So with that in mind we kept Zoom in pre-school for an additional year and I believe it was a very good decision on our part. He learned an amazing amount of material and made great strides in writing, shapes, pattern recognition and color. All these are basic educational tools children should know before they start school. With that in mind I have no doubts our son will do very good his first year in school.

Of course school is exciting, but more so when parents are involved. I am making it a point to be very active in his school classroom and with the PTA. I want to make sure he has every opportunity to excel, learn and develop as he gets older. Plus I think that is one of the cool things about being a dad, helping your son. My dad was great at this, even now I still turn to him for his wisdom and guidance, which helps me through every day life.

Unlike when I started school, times have changed. My wife had to buy an entire list of supplies for our child. With school funding continually being cut teachers are requesting students have their own supplies, outside of a pencil and paper. On top of that Zoom’s teacher, Mrs. Gaul is requesting $25 from each student that will go towards the creation of a scrapbook as she described it. This is something they will work on all year long and take home at the end of the session.

Today the transition was made and I believe it was not a difficult one. Zoom had been in daycare/pre-school since he was two and a half, so he has gotten comfortable with being away from mom and dad. Especially when we leave he joins the other kids and starts playing. He was excited to get to class today with his Scooby Doo lunchbox, oddly enough a kid in his class had the same lunch box. I think they will end up being friends. LOL. He put his lunch away and his snack in his “cubby” where all his supplies are. He found his desk and we helped put his name tag on him. We then had a family hug and kissed him good bye. No crying, no scene

Now we wait and see what all he has to say when he gets home. It will be a matter of getting a routine down in the morning to get up by 7:15, eat, dress and get out of the house. On Tuesday and Wednesday I plan on walking him to school or letting him ride his bike or scooter. It’s only about a 10 minute walk from the house. It beats the god awful traffic in front of the school. I am sure I will have more story and growing pains as we move forward.