1st day of Kindergarten

Nathan had his first day of Kindergarten today... he got up at 7:00am and had his backpack all ready to go. At about 7:30, I rolled out of bed and asked if he wanted pancakes. "No, I already had cereal and I don't want to be late." Okay, so that didn't go as planned.

At about 8:20am, we headed to school. I was anxious to meet his teacher, since I missed "Meet the Teacher Night" earlier this week. We headed in to his classroom, only to be quickly shewed out. We were supposed to go to the gym... uhhh... nice to meet you! I'm glad that first impressions are just that and usually not accurate. I know nothing about her, but I got my 1st impression of her, and she probably thought, "This is one of those parents who can't follow directions." Luckily we get second chances. So I herded my child down to the gym, left him in line with the rest of the "cattle," and said bye-bye. I guess I thought it would be different, not so impersonal or something. He said he had a good day and he likes his teacher. That's good enough for me. I'm just excited for him to learn all he really needs to know, because all we really need to know we learned in kindergarten, right?

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum- an excerpt from the book:
"All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggestword of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down withour blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
© Robert Fulghum, 1990. Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.

I guess they don't have naps and cookies anymore in kindergarten these days either...