Kindergarten and Our Changed World

My heart broke a little bit yesterday.  Like millions of other parents around the world, I had to let go of them and let them take this first big step out in to the great wide world.  Watching them get on the bus, I felt as though they were headed off to school for the next 13 years, not the next 7.5 hours.  I cried multiple times.  Yesterday.  And Sunday.  And the past two weeks.

I spent Saturday and Sunday trying to teach them all those things that I felt they would need for kindergarten.  You know, those things I should have been working on for the last few years, rather than the last few hours before they hopped on the bus.  Proper table manners, how to open a milk box without tearing it to shreds, the ins and outs of hot lunch, proper weight distribution in a backpack, recess success theory, how to be a productive citizen of the world...

Needless to say, we did not perfect all of those items in the short time that I allotted.

They woke up bright-eyed and eager to face the day.  We drove the three miles to our bus stop and waited patiently.  We were on time.  No, we were AHEAD of time.  This was a big accomplishment for our family.

Good friend and bus driver Gus made me feel a bit better.  The kids boarded, picked a seat near the front, and away they went.

Danish Cowboy and I followed the bus to town and attended a little orientation with our kids.  I only cried once when the teacher read the story about a raccoon headed off to school.  The raccoon didn't want to go because he would miss his family too much.  I'm not sure how it ended because I was too busy trying to stay tough and make it look like my eyes were just watering a bit.

We've spent the past six years raising these two precious wonders to this stage.  We encouraged them to love learning, to find independence, to slowly grow wings and head out in to the world.  And wouldn't you know it, during all those  moments when they pretended to ignore our words...they were actually listening to us when it comes to the things that matter.