Big Transition

C2 had a blissful nursery school experience--four years with mostly the same classroom full of friends. He loved to play with all of them, boys and girls alike. He seemed to move seamlessly from group to group. Two of them are like brothers to him. His nursery school teachers were all magical. Every child should have that experience. He also went with me every day for three years to take R2 to her elementary school. All of the teachers know him by name and greet him with genuine enthusiasm every time they see him.  Is he interested in moving on to kindergarten? The answer is a resounding NO. His current plan is to stay home with me every day. It doesn't matter to him that he gets to be at the same school with R2.  Nor does he care that he is familiar with the campus and knows the teachers are kind. He is not going to kindergarten, and that's that...according to him.

When the email came inviting us to the new kindergartener picnic and play date, I was determined to take him no matter what. It required a bit of strategy. We left R1 and R2 at the beach and went home together for some mommy-son time the day before. We had delicious dessert once we got home (a couple of times). We spent some fun time with Grandy. In the evening he expressed his wish to not go to the play date (for the 20th time). The morning of the play date (today), I agreed that he did not have to talk to anyone if he didn't want to. He agreed that he would at least look at faces so he'd know who the teachers were and who some of his classmates would be.  It worked out pretty well. He was silent with all adults, but one of the teachers got a wimpy handshake out of him. I swear he almost smiled at her. He ran around with a few boys and generally had fun playing. He made my name tag for me--my favorite part of the experience.

Of course, he'll be fine. Everyone knows that. The reality is, sending my baby to kindergarten might be a bigger transition for me than for him. Maybe home school is the answer.