planning for kindergarten

Kindergarten pre-registration was this morning. Bug will be off to The Big School in the fall heat of late summer. I dutifully gathered together the hearing/vision/dental form, the immunization form, the current power bill as proof of residency, and tracked down his birth certificate and social security card (had to find the key to the safety deposit box- no simple project there!). As I searched for all the required information I was reminded of my friend, who was PTA president when her second child was ready to register. AT registration, which she was helping to organize, she realized she'd never, ever owned a copy of her child's birth certificate. Not that she'd forgotten to bring it, but she'd forgotten to order it when her child was born. Second kids.

Kindergarten! Bug was psyched all morning. I'd told him he'd have to take a little, simple test and this was So! Exciting! to him. He bounced down the hallway with the teacher, with two other pre-kindergarten children, and returned with a sticker proudly centered on his chest. They asked him to count! spell his name! know his colors! tell his address! I wish I could help him keep that enthusiasm for other tests he'll be taking in the next thirteen years. He doesn't know what's coming.

The summer before Pook started kindergarten, he was asked regularly "Are you excited about Kindergarten?" Now, mind you, both kids started attending a parents morning out program two mornings a week starting around a year and a half, so by then Pook had had four years of "school" already. He shrugged off most of the questioners, but one time he looked at the person seriously and responded, "I'm just interested in college." I think I had neglected to tell him about those pesky grades 1-12 which come between kindergarten and college.

But Bug is the younger kid. And he wants to be Big. He is Excited. He is Ready. He is going to conquer that school. He already knows the most important people there- the secretary, the librarian and one custodian, so he's set.