What A Difference A Year Makes — Kindergarten Development

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What changes have you noticed in your kindergartner and their friends since last year?

—–

Having missed my chance, early in the year, to sign up to read to the Kindergarten class, I was starting to feel like I would never get a peek at what goes on every day. So, when the birthday rolled around I was quick to email the teacher and volunteer to come in with cupcakes and drinks and, of course, napkins.

And no store-bought cupcakes would do (I make a mean cupcake, if I do say so myself). So, the night before the big day, even though I still had gifts to wrap and cards to write, I started on the cupcakes right after dinner. Even though my throat was ominously sore…

And not just any cupcakes, but mini cupcakes so that it would seem like the kids were getting twice the number of cupcakes of any other birthday celebration. Of course, this means that it seems like I was doing twice the work (there are 24 kids in that class. That’s a lot of glooping of mixture into tiny cupcake cases. It’s a lot of baking, a lot of cooling and a lot of icing!), but I wanted to do my boy proud. He was so excited — in a cool kind of way.

I stayed up late, while TheMan wrapped the last of the presents. I iced cupcakes and watched TV to pass the time. I fended off the roaming insomniac three-year old brother. And all the while I ignored my sore throat.

Now, I don’t get sick much, but I do have a spectacular history with strep throat. I’ve had it in every flavor, from mild, to can’t-stand-up-feverish, to “Oh! I’d better give you the really STRONG antibiotics” bad. I can pick up strep throat, it seems, by talking on the phone to someone who has it. But this was Not Going To Be Strep Throat. Not on my boy’s birthday!

Only it was.

I knew, as soon as I woke up, achey and sore, the next morning, that it was strep throat.

I looked sadly at the miles of mini cupcakes on my kitchen counter and knew there was only one place they were going: the trashcan.

I gathered up Little Brother and dragged him off to an early doctor’s appointment so that I would still have time to get to the store for MORE cupcakes, and back to school by the appointed hour. (When the doctor asked why I was there, I said “the usual”. She flipped back through my chart and said “oh. Oh! OH! You’re right. Apart from that thing with the poison ivy three years ago, it’s Strep all the way!”).

When I finally staggered into the school, carrying my grocery bags full of supplies it was all worth it to see A’s face light up.

I explained to the teacher that I’d just be standing in this corner over here, trying not to breathe on anyone, and she very sympathetically got A and his little friend to set about serving cupcakes to the class.

It really struck me how different these kindergarten kids were from the pre-K howler monkeys I met last year. Of course, some of them are new, and the school uniform lends an air of gravitas, but still and all they were SO much more grown-up than they were a year ago.

The girls were especially unnerving. Maybe it was the millieu of the tea party or maybe I’m just not used to girls, but they were so…composed and polite. One of the girls at A’s table quickly took charge, helping my rather more excitable boy to hand out the snacks in an organized fashion, pointing out where he had missed someone, handing out napkins and even inviting Little Brother G to sit at their table, setting a place for him.

It was so cute, and pretty amazing.

Every time I think that their development is bound to slow down, off they go again, surprising me (babies change physically so fast, but then toddlers race through developmental milestones. Surely by kindergarten things would have slowed down, I thought, but no!)

I had expected to feel sad when my little ones were no longer babies. And, in the abstract, it is a kind of sad thought. In reality, however, watching them grow up and take on the world is pretty awesome and quite, quite a thrill.

Even when your temperature is 102 and you’re propped in the corner watching them through a febrile haze.

—-

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What changes have you noticed in your kindergartner and their friends since last year?

[Comment for an entry into the current giveaway]