On Your First Day of Kindergarten

I don’t know what memory most kids have of their first day of Kindergarten, but I thought I ought to record a few for Luke.  Today was (I guess) his first day of Kindergarten.  By that, I mean that he began his Kindergarten school workbooks today.  Why today?  Well, mostly because he’s been begging to and yesterday he finished up the workbooks I had gotten from the dollar store that we’ve been going through.

So, Luke, your first day of Kindergarten was pretty non-eventful.  As usual, we got the girls ready and in bed for their naps.  Then you and I went outside and you played on the porch with your weed whacker while I trimmed the front yard with mine.  We pulled some weeds in the front border.  Then we went in and got started on your Kindergarten materials.

In many ways, it was much like all of our previous days of “school”.  My favorite part was when I asked you if you remembered what vowels are, and you said, “Yes, they are promises.”  We then reviewed the difference between vowels and vows.  Also, as promised, you got to crack open the brand new box of 64 Crayola Crayons as a reward for finishing your old workbooks.  I wonder how long this set will last.  Until your Kindergarten workbooks are done, I hope!

You also got lots of practice writing your name.  Interestingly, you still don’t know how to spell your own name.  You kept wanting to write “Luek”.  Today you had a light bulb moment when you said, “Oh, I see. The “e” goes at the end!”  Some day we’ll cover long vowels and silent “e”.  Not today.  Today in Math we worked on counting, same and different, and just getting used to the new math book (lots of filling-in-bubbles practice).  In Language, we reviewed the vowels, practiced writing the letter “i” and then worked on identifying the sound of the letter “i” in words.  At this point, it’s mostly all review for you, so we’re pretty much just practicing and having fun.

Of course, these workbooks are only a tiny part of your education.  You spend your whole day learning and doing.  Like this morning, when we had Bible time and we all talked about David and the ark being brought to Jerusalem on an ox cart, you recited the first ten verses of Psalm 132 and we sang Psalm 145.  Or a little later when you and Emma sorted all of the big and little paper clips for me.  And when you and the girls and I all snuggled up on the sofa for reading.  And then at lunch when we had more conversations about what foods are made from milk.  And then again at dinner, when Daddy brought out his little computer to show us all pictures of jelly fish (actually not fish, we discovered) and tell us all about them and how their tentacles cause stings.

So in some ways, this day was not monumental at all.  You have been learning for a long, long time.  You have been doing “school” for a year or so now.  But I didn’t want to let today go by without saying something.  You will always be my Little Boy, but today I watched you take a big step towards Little Man!