Ready to Enroll

I look at my 5-year-old acting more and more mature (some days), and I am wistful for those baby stages when she still clung to me, needing to be held and helped – thought it seemed suffocating at the time. My daughter is learning to read and write and make her own meals (yes, cold cereal counts); she has established that she quite prefers picking her own clothing and asks for more to do on her own.

With notice that kindergarten registration is just around the corner, I can’t help but almost panic at what’s next to come. As if being a parent doesn’t make time fly by fast enough, we’re asked to prepare for this major monumental step, six months in advance of our wee ones’ first day. 

Clearly the schools have no idea what’s going through my mind as I anticipate my first child starting school and the preparation required to make sure she is ready and able to handle the day-to-day demands of a regular daily schedule.

I can already envision my daughter wanting to ride the school bus and pick out her own school clothes. I’m getting crazy with anticipation and preparation for what pressures will come into our home with this new life change and what her new friends will bring.

I know she’s only 5, but this is the start of daily influence by someone other than me. Did I instill the right values and manners and provide a strong enough foundation to weather the inevitable challenges? How can I combat bullying, self-esteem issues, peer-pressures, friendships and playground squabbles when I’m not always going to know they exist?

I know that with each milestone, our kids are growing and learning and becoming more of a person than they are today. I also know that kids need the space and independence to flourish and come into their own. They need to build the confidence, the strength and the voice to maneuver through social situations – without Mom hovering nearby. I just never thought age 5 would seem so young. Is this what 5 really looks like? Was I this young when I started school? What were my parents thinking?

So it is with a deep breath, and a handful of tissue, that I step-up to take on this new milestone in all its anxiety-inducing glory.

On second thought, maybe the schools are on to something with a six-month advance warning to parents that yes, school is approaching, and yes, we’re all going to be just fine.

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Registration Dates for Fall 2011 Enrollment:

Sumner School District – Feb. 28 – March 4

White River School District – March 15

Enumclaw School District – March 24–31

Dieringer School District – March 30