This week brought two paperwork milestones, if you want to call them that. Monday I picked up a registration from from D's preschool, but not for D... It was for my second son, G. He'll be three in May and due to start preschool in the fall. The second was for my big boy - a flyer came home from school today with information about kindergarten.
Although September isn't exactly right around the corner, my perception of time being what it is, we're going to be celebrating a 1st birthday and sending two kids off to school before I know it. I know these things are approaching, but getting paperwork for both really hit home. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was filling out the same preschool registration form for D - visiting the school, talking to the teachers, deciding if it was the right place for him. Now I'm about to register G for the fall - and that just seems crazy.
I worry a lot less about D's transition to kindy than I do G entering school for the first time. D is already excited about kindergarten, since he'll be going to the same school as our best friends' kids. Plus, this is "big boy school". He's ready. He's going to do great.
G, on the other hand, scares me. He is very high energy, and let's just be honest - very difficult. He's sweet and funny and it isn't that he's a bad kid. But he's a huge handful and it is almost impossible to imagine him functioning in a classroom environment. Obviously he has some time, and 8 months in kid time is an eternity. He has time to mature, to learn some things about taking turns, raising your hand and not pummeling into the other kids and tackling them to the ground like he does with his brother... And to potty train. Oh lordy, potty training. He has to be fully trained by September, or our $75 registration fee will have been wasted. If he hasn't trained by summer, we're going to have a lot of naked-running-around-in-the-yard time around here and hope like heck he can at least stay dry for the 2 1/2 hours he's in school.
Quite honestly, if preschool doesn't work out next school year, it will be fine. With a May birthday, he'll be young for the class and if it's a total disaster we can just pull him out and try again in a year. Depending on his readiness, we can always wait until he's 6 to start kindy, and although that would make him quite a bit older than many of his classmates, if that's what he needs, that's what we'll do - my husband's dreams of he and his brother playing on the same high school football team aside. My hope, however, is that he'll surprise us and do great in school next year. He'll probably be the kid who doesn't like to sit still and needs a lot of reminders to stay on task and not throw things and to keep his hands to himself. But the teachers are so great, and they've been doing this a long time. They've probably seen just about everything and they'll be able to either handle him, or let us know that he's not ready. Time will just have to tell on this one.
In the meantime, I'm once again faced with the reality that my kids are growing up so fast. It makes having a baby in the house again that much more enjoyable, despite my desire for a night's unbroken rest. Just think, come September I'll have two mornings a week with just one kid! Now that is a stark contrast to the way this school year began - me toting around a brand new baby, a crazy toddler and an almost 5 year old. Although I don't want to wish time away, there is a certain appeal to that thought. It's funny how when you have mutliple kids, a "break" is defined as anytime you don't have all of them with you on your own.
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