K is for...

Kanyon
and
Kindergarten

Kanyon has been looking forward to going to Kindergarten for months. This spring, he began informing me and Josh that his teacher told him he doesn't even have to go to Kindergarten, he can skip ahead and go straight to first grade because he is so smart. He has loved his preschool teachers, Geri and Cathy. They have really enjoyed him as well, and at Parent-Teacher conference showed me all his impressive work and they remarked about how far he's come socially and intellectually and behaviorally since beginning there at the age of 3. I asked them about his comment at Parent-Teacher conference, and told them that he truly believed what they said about not having to go to Kindergarten. After that, he started commenting that when he's "5 1/2", he'd be going to Kindergarten. Then he decided that he WAS "already 5 1/2", so he'd be "going to Kindergarten in 6 days when it was his birthday". No matter the day, he stuck to that same new story, and supposedly his birthday was going to be in 6 days from whenever he said that. Kanyon's birthday is in February, so he won't even be 5 1/2 until August, (let alone even close to turning 6!) but try telling him that!

In April, the elementary school did a Kindergarten Registration for all incoming Kindergarten students next fall. I took the afternoon off from teaching, picked him up at pre-school, and then took him to the school. There are several different stations that the future student goes to in the gym while the parent fills out forms and watches from the sidelines. There's a blocks & colors sorting/organizing station, an eye doctor test, a speech pathologist with a hearing test, a letter recognition station, a coloring spot, and a name writing & shape drawing desk. After the future student does all the stations, then they get to eat a snack and talk to the library lady and take home a free book and bag while the parent goes over the results with an administrator. Kanyon aced all his tests except the name-writing one. He knows how to and can write his name, and he did, but he has frustrations gripping the pencil correctly (we've been working on it).

Kanyon was so happy at the Kindergarten Registration! He thought he was actually going to be in Kindergarten as of that day, and it was life-changing for him! He smiled at everybody he saw, spoke happily to every child he saw, waved at me and smiled from every station he was at. He was beaming! I've truly never seen him so happy as he was during the Registration!

It made my heart glad to see him so excited and so happy to be starting Kindergarten! After his round of stations was complete, and I talked to the administrator, it was time for me to take him back to preschool. That was the end of the beaming. "I don't go to preschool anymore" he kept telling me, "I go to Kindergarten now". I kept trying to explain to him that he wouldn't be a Kindergartener until after the summer...and that there were still 2 months left of preschool before summer. But no matter how I tried to explain it: in months, weeks, or days, he wasn't understanding the concept that Kindergarten wasn't starting TODAY!

One thing is for sure, though: he's ready! He was ready days, weeks, and months ago! And as soon as he's 5 1/2, he will still be ready, except then he will finally be going to Kindergarten at the "big kid"school! And what a happy/sad day that will be!!!