School Daze....

Well, this begins our 4th grade year for Miss K.

Looking back, I feel like I kinda jacked things up for her early on. Kindergarten was her very first experience with any type of "away from mom" gig. I was a stay at home mom for her first 4 years, and she was a very curious child, always full of questions, and I made it my mission that if I didn't know the answer, we'd find it out, together. This led to lots of chemistry experiments on the porch, and growing beans in a Ziploc bag taped to a window sill, and reading and exploring. I could lie and say I did it all for her benefit, but it was hella fun for me to see the light go on in her head, and to experience all the "discoveries" the second time around in my adult life.

She was reading and writing at about 4. We had issues with her telling "tall tales" (ok, lying to make things more interesting, whatever) so I got her a journal and told her to write her tales down, and tell people the truth. And she did.

So, Kindergarten looked like a hella cool place to be at first. But within the first week, she discovered boredom. Badly. And then 2 things happened in one week that kind of derailed school for a bit. One was 9/11. The other, although it pales in comparison to most adults, is that 3 kids threw up on the Happy Circle rug in the space of about 15 minutes. I don't know exactly what the teacher said or did, but she was kind of a punchy woman. I think she drank at night. A LOT. And this event, coupled with the bizarre day of 9/11, where frenzied teary parents were showing up to pick up their kids, made K decide school just wasn't for her.

So began 2.5 years of the worst mornings ever in the history of mornings. Crying, begging, stout refusal, cash offers, slave willingness. Every attempt was tried. Explanations of mommy going to jail if she didn't go to school fell on deaf ears. I was even told once that "Jail isn't that bad of a place". heh. I would have to bodily remove her from my car every morning, wailing, and then cry all the way back to my office. I hate bad mornings.

Her 1st grade teacher was a sage, wise older woman that had been teaching 1st grade since Jesus went to school. She told me at our conference about her daughter, who performed the same strategies that K was doing....until 4th grade. I was both thankful for her understanding of why a teary eyed genius wanna be showed up in her classroom each day, and horror stricken that this could go on for 3 more years.

But it didn't. Somewhere in the beginning of second grade, I guess she finally caved. We were going to make her go, that was that, may as well just do the time. Grades were great throughout this melee.

So....4th grade. Almost done with elementary school. Wow.

We pull up to the school, she's itching to get back in class, because "4th grade is the year of the WRITING TAKS Test, Mom, and you KNOW how much I love WRITING!"

I open my mouth to tell her how proud I am that she's come so far and hear instead, "OHMYGOD LOOK MOM IT'S JESSICA FROM CAMP!!!" followed by a slam of the car door.

I manage to get "I love y..." out of my mouth. She didn't hear. Oh well. It's written on the napkin in her lunch too.

Good luck in 4th grade, K....keep reaching for the stars.