Last Days

Annika had her last day of kindergarten yesterday. She's leaving school a few days before the year ends so we can go on a quick vacation and she won't be going back for first grade. Up until this week she's been fine with the plan.

What's changed in the last little bit? Her teachers are talking up first grade like it's one big party. She's visited the school's library where next year she'll be allowed to check out a book each week! And she visited the first grade classrooms where she might get to do some art! The teachers showed her the cafeteria where she'll be able to buy her lunch, eat with her friends and play on the big playground!

So, what is my response to my poor five-year-old that now thinks school is going to be so fun? Nothing. Really. I tell her that the things they've showed her about school seem a lot of fun and I'm glad she's growing so much and wants to do big things. But I don't try to convince her that homeschooling is going to be better or that she'll have lots of new friends or anything. There will be time for that and she'll live her life and she'll move on.

Change is hard on a little one. Especially one that's high-strung and whip-smart. Even though she's seen her brothers do school at home, only spends three hours each day at school and spent half the year bored, she knows what to expect at school. She has friends there, school is built on routines and predictability and she loved her teacher. So now we live our life and see what happens. It's summer. We'll hang out with her friends, from school, church and the neighborhood. We'll start first grade at home when the time comes and continue to live our lives.

And if that doesn't work? We'll tell her that if she went to first grade we couldn't go to Disneyland in the middle of the week.