Kindergarten Round Up

About a month ago I was opening the mail when I opened one envelope and my heart stopped for a few seconds...it was an invitation to Kindergarten Round Up...for Jackson. What? How did this happen? Of course we have been talking about going to kindergarten with Jackson for a long time, but the fact that I saw it in writing and the fact that someone was inviting us to a school to make it real was seeming to be impossible to me that this day has arrived already.

Sure enough at 5am this morning Jackson was up and ready to get his day started in kindergarten. Todd and I just laughed, because we knew he would be up early. I'm in love with his excitement about life. Jackson was very particular about getting ready this morning. He picked out his clothes, not what I had in mind, but went with it. He spent a lot of time in the bathroom doing his hair and flossing his teeth and finally he was ready. Aubrin was disappointed she wasn't coming with us, but was very excited that she got Kalynn all to herself.

Jackson was quiet in the car on the way to the school. When we got there and Todd opened the door, Jackson said, "I'm ready to go home dad." Todd reassured Jackson that it would be fine and many of his friends would be there. As we were walking up to the school I looked down at Jackson and he had a quivery lip and his eyes were tearing up. He was feeling so nervous. Todd scooped him up, gave him a little love and then...we saw one of his buddies. The tears were gone and my confident little guy was back. When we walked in all of the teachers were lined up behind a table and were handing parents names tags to write their child's name on. Jackson took the pen and said he could write his own name~ good job big guy. All of the kids were then split into groups. They were going to all three kindergarten rooms to spend time with each teacher, and then ride the school bus.

We stayed back in the gym to listen to the principal and the PTA talk. I know how Kindergarten Round Up works, I do it every year on the other side of it. I know that all three of those kindergarten teachers were doing some type of assessment to see ability level and with only meeting Jackson for a short time would make some type of judgement on what type of student he is. I felt nervous for Jackson and hoped that he felt comfortable and was loving every minute of it.

We sat and listened to the principal talk and the PTA about the school, the first week of kindergarten and all of questions and answers. I must say I was very impressed with the school and I am very excited about becoming part of the school community.

A bit later all of the students started to come back into the gym to find their parents. Jackson came in with a smile on his face and said he had a lot of fun. On the way home Jackson said he loved riding the bus and he liked the story one of the teachers read to them.

I'm so glad that Jackson's experience went well and he is so excited to go back in the fall. Now I just have to prepare myself for him to go....