kindergarten

i always know when summer is right around the corner...cause clothing becomes optional in my house. my kids refuse to wear clothes in the heat, and my husband is usually shirtless as well. as soon as we get home from the sitter, ella strips down and runs out in the backyard. carrie is only (almost) one and starts pulling at her clothes like, "get them the hell off of me." so i just go with it. if my kids want to be naked in the backyard all summer...who cares. (i have bigger fish to fry.) and as for butch, i don't know if it's a guy thing or what...but shirtless is the cool thing to do in his world. i usually find his shirts (and shorts, sometimes) all over the house. living room or laundry room? sometimes i just don't know. anyway, the beginning of summertime is always a bittersweet time of year for me. although i am super mega pumped to be off of work for 3 months (who wouldn't be?), i do know that i am truly going to miss the children that i just spent the last 180 days with. they become part of my daily routine, my daily life, and although they aren't my own...i will miss them. on the other hand, i am very excited to spend more time with my own (naked) children.

along with being a remarkable pain in the ass, kids are also just awesome. they find the best in everything. they get overly excited for things we (as adults) don't normally excited about. they find the wonder in everything. somewhere along the line, we get jaded and cynical...and it sucks. we forget how much fun it is to laugh until our belly hurts, roll down a grassy hill, color with a box of brand new crayons. ever see how they react to an airplane flying overhead? everything stops...and they have to look. (they are utterly amazed.) when do we stop being amazed by stuff like that? when do we stop finding the wonder in everything? a little boy told me today that after his kindergarten program (yesterday), he saw a balloon flying into the sky. he went on to tell me that he watched it until he couldn't see it anymore. i asked him where he thought the balloon went. he didn't even hesitate and said, "TO THE MOON!" (yesssss.)

that all being said, kindergarten is such an integral year in a child's life. it's is the beginning of something big. when i tell people that i teach kindergarten...and they say, "awww...that's just so sweet." or "how nice." i want ram a no. 2 pencil into their jugular. when they say, "do you read stories and wipe noses all day?" i want to poke them in their eyeball with a pair of kid friendly scissors. kindergarten is so much more than that. (it's kinda a big deal.) i teach children how to read, write, and learn. i teach them how to be kind to one another and how to act (and react) in social situations. i teach them how to sit still for more than 5 minutes and focus their attention on one specific thing. i teach them how to use scissors, hold a pencil, and write in a straight line. i teach them shapes, colors, numbers, letters, sounds, and punctuation. so yes, part of my job is wiping noses and kissing injuries...but it's so much more.

yesterday at our end of the year kindergarten program...i asked our principal to read this aloud. (it's one of my favorites.)

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten 

by Robert Fulgham

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at school.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. 

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

and so at the end of another school year, i am so very lucky to have met and taught the little ones in my class. however, they end up teaching me so much more than i could teach them. mostly though...i find that they almost always remember the laughter. recently, i had a child from my very first year say to me, "remember when you asked us who the first president of the united states was? and i said it was george CLOONEY?...you laughed so hard, mrs. s! i will never forget that." this is the same child that could not pronounce the "fr" blend and called our class pet a BROG the whole year. he had to read about our pet frog in front of the class, and he said, "the brog is green. the brog is slimy. the brog is jumping." i had to bite my lip from laughing every time he said it. when he came back to visit recently, i asked him if he remembered our pet frog from that year. he said, "oh yeah! the FROG! he was awesome." (glad he got that consonant blend figured out.) 

this year, i was explaining something to the kids about using an inside and outside voice. the little boy that was sitting in front of me got startled when i used my "outside" voice...and flew off the back of his chair. (like a cartoon character) after i realized he was alright, i couldn't stop laughing. the kids laughed hysterically as well. they still bring this up, and it happened a good 6 months ago. i just had a child today give a 10 minute demo on the playground as to why he is going to grow up to be...spiderman. he was showing me all his moves. if that superhero needs a stand in, my 5 year old friend could easily fit the job. we learn a lot in one year...and we laugh a lot, too. moreover, if you were able to read this...you should probably thank your kindergarten teacher. you can also thank her for wiping your nose and kissing your dirty knee at recess...cause that's just as important. do yourself a favor this summer and roll like hell down a grassy hill...you're welcome in advance. 

"don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." -dr. seuss