Kindergarten. Makin' it Big Time.

I've been MIA for lots of good reasons.

I've been busy being in movies.  Going on vacation.  Getting the ol' school schedule ramped up.  Having visitors.

Same as the rest of you.  Wait, did I say in movies?  Why, yes.  Yes I did.  But I'm saving that for another post.

Welcome back to structure, one of my least favorite activities.  Do you know that I have FOUR different start times for school every day?  One in high school, two in junior high, two in elementary school (plus that darn afternoon kindergarten).  I don't even count the baby and the Dad.  Factor in the after school activities and appointments..... I made up a daily itinerary and darn near gave myself hyperventilation.

Not to mention that finding all the school supplies for kids in junior high and high school is like playing Ultimate Scavenger Hunt.  Although I had bought ahead, I still had to go to WalMart and Target the second day of school, total madhouse, and not a single 1 inch binder to be found.  Not a protractor.  No dividers.  I even had to write a note to my son's teacher to excuse myself for not getting my supplies gathered for geometry on time for points.  Fer real.

This year is a big year for Jackson who finally started kindergarten.  He turns six in two weeks, so he just barely missed the cut off to go last year.  I saw the class lists and saw that there were TWO Jacksons in his class.  "How will your teacher tell you apart?"  I asked him, as if this would be difficult.  "I say you are the handsome Jackson," I said as I was trimming his hair.  Without hesitation he quips, "and the other Jackson will be the dumb one."  No self esteem issues here.

So, the first day.  Was I misty eyed?  Try an hour and a half late due to me overlooking the early out schedule being followed (on a Monday??).  Everyone asks how he liked kindergarten and he replies "I only got 30 minutes because of mom."  Meanwhile we had been at McDonald's celebrating his upcoming first day.  Lovely.  Score 1 for school, 0 for me.

The next day I went in with him for his testing appointment.  The teacher saw me and right away recognized me as the ONE mom who came late the first day.  Teacher:  "Oh, honey, there's no school today.  We are doing testing all week," she said.  Now- maybe I look like a young green mom...  but I was actually supposed to be there, despite her assumptions.  Ha!  Score 1 for me for being there on purpose.  Mom-1, School-1.

Yesterday was the first "real day" of school and boy were we totally on time.  However, I was surprised to see all the kids walking in with their names spelled out in macaroni and glitter on giant pieces of paper.  Wha?  Oh, no.  The all-too familiar sinking feeling tells me there was something in that STACK of papers received last week.  An assignment.  What was it?  Me: "OK, Jackson.  There are other kids with projects.  Don't panic.  Just tell the teacher we're still working on it."  Him:  "Working on what?"  Me: "Whatever everyone else has."  Great, I'd blown the first assignment now as well.  Final score:  School 2, Mom 1.

To tell the truth I almost ran home and wrote his name with glued-on-cereal to bring in so he wouldn't feel bad.  Poor pathetic mother that I am... thinking of doing his very first school assignment so he wouldn't hate school, drop out, and want to live on the streets at the tender age of 5.  Instead though, I un-helicopter parented and we worked on it today, no biggie.

I am happy to report he is still in school, after day 2, although he says he doesn't like it because "people there are weird".

That reminded me of the time that Frank ate his sock in my sister's kindergarten class.  He cut it up into a hundred bite sized pieces and truly ate it all gone.  That's the stuff kindergartners are made of, so I can't blame Jackson for eying up his new peers.  There very likely ARE some weird ones.

Pray he's not one of them.

So we may not be off to a great start, but we are off.  I wake up and hit the ground running until I fall into bed at night.  One day at a time, right?  Only 173 school days left until summer.  Let's DO THIS THING.