1 Cor. 13:11

My son is growing up before my very eyes.

There are very few harder transitions to make in both a child's and a parent's lives than those involved with school.  For most it is a rite of passage in America, transitioning sometimes from half day Kindergarten into  all day school is the first big step.

Many school districts in Pennsylvania, and the school where my son Zachary attends, have all day Kindergarten.  This means that the pain of transition actually went from day care to school possibly a year earlier than most.  Half day Kindergarten is easier on the kids, harder on the parents (in terms of scheduling.)  Kindergarten as a whole (whether half day or full day) for parents as a mental and emotional hurdle is probably the hardest before sending kids off to college.  I'm not even sure leaving him at day care was as hard for us as the first day of school was.

It marks the beginning of the journey to being a grown up.  That may seem strange to say as young as they are and as many years as they have ahead of them, at least to some who don't have kids or to those who have forgotten what their childhood was like, but I assure you it is true none the less.  Kindergarten represents the gateway into a world where expectations and responsibility are put into place.  This is especially true nowadays, more so than when we were kids.  No one administered any kind of readiness test for me to enter Kindergarten, we just went.  No one expected us to know our letters or numbers or any basic spelling or elementary reading, we were sent there to start learning those things.

Expectations have changed as the demands of our society to improve education have evolved.  There are many schools and many students who enter school who are unprepared for this, fortunately my son was not one of them.  At an early age and with the help of his last day care and his devoted mother, letters, numbers, months, seasons, holidays, colors, shapes and even basic reading were all stressed.  My earliest memories of Kindergarten were learning not to eat crayons or paste (or crayons AND paste. Certain color combinations worked really well, light green and yellow was kind of 7 - UP ish).

Just last night Zachary read a sentence on a family card game we have which reads "If you were to build the ultimate roller coaster what would it be?" He didn't stumble once, even though we were betting on "ultimate" to trip him up. He can do addition and subtraction, he reads, he knows money and tells time.  He can work on the computer.  Now before we go labeling me as a big loser for not knowing THAT as a Kindergartner, in my defense home computers didn't come out until I was about 11.  Windows XP is easy, let's see Zach try to navigate through MS-DOS.  "C:\file delete?  No, that's not it.  Which floppy did I save that damn file on?"

But in all seriousness, as of Friday we will mark the last official day of Kindergarten, a step which is leaving his mother and I both sad and proud.  Sad because he is leaving behind so many of the endearing toddler traits which we got to love over the past 2 1/2 years, and proud because he is transitioning into an extremely intelligent First Grader.  As I watch him sleep tonight with a stuffed puppy tucked under his arm, one of the last vestiges of babyhood, I'm left to ponder how long we will have hugs and kisses upon coming home, how long "Mommy" will last before morphing into "MOM!", how long I have left to push him on the swings and how long tickling toes and making farting noises will be funny.

Oh who am I kidding?  The one consolation is he's a boy.  Farting noises will ALWAYS be funny.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.