Assessment

The beach trip was great. Perfect weather, perfect family time...very relaxing. The only storms came at night, with one of them knocking the power out for 5 hours or so...we turned on the flashlights and read stories with the (four) kids. They loved it. After putting them to bed Tom and I sat out on the porch and talked for a long time...it was so quiet, so dark, so peaceful. It made me hope for more power outages...even on vacation it is good to be "forced" to slow down even more.

Since we've been home I've been busier than ever. Catching up on work, and since I was elected to the executive board at Mint Hill Arts (I also handle web duties there) I have been spending a lot of time on that. We just moved into our new gallery space, had a "soft opening" last Friday, and it was beautiful. The new gift shop space there is much nicer - did I mention that I sell beaded items there? Hors d'oeuvre utensils, currently - and hoping to add to that. One of these days I'll post some pictures.

Before we left I went up to the school and registered Sam for kindergarten. Yes, I cried a few tears on the way home. Definitely bittersweet.

So today is "Assessment Day" for Sam at the school. We've been telling him about it for the last two weeks and day by day he has gotten more excited. We told him they would play, ask him questions to see what he knows...etc. As of Monday morning he was counting the days.

This morning, of course, a whole different story. Didn't want to go, wanted me to stay the whole time (we were to drop him off at 10:30 and pick him up at 1:00). We got there a little early, I was hoping that he would ease into it and not be quite so anxious/nervous once he saw all the other kids. Unfortunately he did not see anyone from his preschool, but I don't even know if that would have mattered. He hid behind me and had the most dour unhappy look on his face. I asked him what I could do to make him feel better - "I don't know," he said. So I just waited to see if he'd loosen up a little.

When it came time for him to go back with the teachers, he didn't want to go. Hid behind me again. Thankfully the leader saw that he was having a hard time, and told him she would take him when he was ready (they took the kids back in groups). Two more groups, and he was ready. I was shocked - but he looked at her and smiled, gave her a high five, and away he went with her and about 5 other kids. I watched him walk all the way down the hall and turn the corner.

He never looked back once.

It is hard not to place too much importance on days like this - still so many firsts in his life. I so want kindy to be a good experience for him - I feel like it sets the stage for his entire educational career. Freaking myself out a little bit, as usual...