Goodbye Summer, Hello School

Here it is, the beginning of August, and I’m scratching my head, wondering where on earth the kids’ summer break has gone. Granted, we have a short-ish timeout from school at just over two months, but it feels like just yesterday we were celebrating the last day of school. And now, it’s started up again with some MAJOR changes.

In another cruel trick of time, the original three have been growing exponentially fast. They’re no longer chubby-cheeked girls, but closer to full-blown women. I know I’m not the first parent to ever lament where the time has gone, but seriously, WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE? Evelyn is a seasoned high school sophomore, Claire is the upperclassman as an 8th grader at the middle school, and Kate has joined the big girls as a 6th grader. For your information, no, they don’t have to wear uniforms. They just thought it would be cute to go matchy-matchy for the first day. I take it as proof that they’re better friends and confidants than they sometimes let on.

Though Kate was the only one to admit to feeling any apprehension about the new school year, I was able to take each of the girls to get their schedules, test out their lockers, and find their rooms. Kate had to go through the childhood rite-of-passage and learn how to work a combination lock, which, for a time, overwhelmed her. She kept asking me why she had to turn it in a certain direction and why she couldn’t adjust the number after having gone past the one she should have stopped at… these are the kinds of questions to which I was woefully under-prepared to answer. Once I convinced her to elbow those questions aside for Jack, who probably new the answer to the locking mechanisms, she was able to get the pattern down. Now a few days into the school year, she has it down pat. Bonus points: Claire’s locker is almost directly above Kate and separated by a single staircase. They have exchanged locker combinations, and I fear sisterly pranks may be in the works.

Though Henry is an old pro at school, he too had some exciting changes to his routine. Instead of attending his usual school with his younger siblings, he was invited into a special program for kids who learn like him–an accelerated program of sorts at a nearby sister-school. He has a very inquisitive and self-motivated method of learning, and this opportunity will give him a chance to push himself to think bigger. When I consider where he’s at now, I kinda can’t help but laugh that he was put in the remedial kindergarten grouping for exactly one week because I hadn’t taught him all his letters and letter sounds. That’s how long it took him to catch up to his peers. And yeah… apparently kids are supposed to know all this stuff BEFORE they get to school. Well, obviously, I don’t think they do, ’cause Henry and his siblings are doing just fine.

The biggest adjustment for us is always when one more child flies the coop and joins their siblings in the big, wide world of school. I cannot express how excited Peter was to go–almost hurts my feelings that he was so eager to leave. 😆 He has seen the whole journey to starting kindergarten as one big adventure. I do believe he will do great things in his life and hope he remembers how it all started–one cheesy grin, a new outfit and backpack, and so much excitement.

The first day of school is always a bit chaotic as we begin working the kinks out of our morning routine. This year, that was especially true as Jack was out of town. Could a work trip BE any more inconvenient? Luckily, I have enough experience juggling schedules and running a tight ship that the craziness doesn’t intimidate me. Literally everyone was up at the crack of dawn. They just couldn’t help themselves! For some, like Adam and Zoey, the excitement wore off quickly, and they went back to bed, but everyone else rushed around to pack their lunches, primp their hair, and shovel down some breakfast. I was able to get the older girls to school in record time, thanks to a sneaky little back route we discovered at the end of last year. It bypasses all the traffic, and they were dropped off with copious amounts of time to get to their classes.

Taking the elementary school kids was trickier… there’s plenty of time for me to get back, do the chores/feed the animals, and still take the kids to school. The problem hit when we arrived at the school. The drop off line is notoriously slow, which is to be expected on the first few days as those adorable kindergarteners figure out how to get out of the car, and parents wave goodbye (or more often than not, get out of their car, give their kid a hug and kiss, a pep talk, and check that their backpack is stocked, then watch teary-eyed as they go into school, completely oblivious to the 500 cars behind them). Since Henry is bussed over to his school while Peter and Zoey remain at their home school, we watched the busses come and go while we were stuck in the grid locked drop-off line. No biggie. I drove Henry to his school the first day, though he wasn’t thrilled that he was late. Then, I realized Peter’s water bottle was rolling around in the car. I drove it over to his school, so he wouldn’t fret about his brand new water bottle being lost. Then, I found Henry’s water bottle under his seat. I debated going back to take it to him, but after the rough start to his day, I figured he’d appreciate having all his things. So, back we went.

It was almost an hour after school started by the time Adam and I came back home. We got out of the car and stared at each other. I have never had a child his age at home with me, who didn’t also have another sibling to play with. He was equally bewildered. So, we tried to keep things as normal and routine as possible. We went to the library, took a solo stroller ride, worked in the garden and around the yard, and had a very quiet lunch. Adam was all smiles, getting to watch his own show without having to wrestle the remote away from anyone and having my full attention as he helped me. He also asked me–no joke–every five minutes where everyone was. We were both bewildered and amused by the new state of existence.

I surprised myself by not crying on the first day of school like I normally do. While there is some freedom in having kids away for a portion of the day, I also really, really miss them. But that day, I was running on single-parent survival mode. It’s not a skill I enjoy, but am grateful I’ve cultivated. Now that school has been running for a few days, it’s all starting to sink in. In a couple of years, Adam will leave me, too. In those same couple of years, Evelyn will be finishing her high school career, and will be on to the next big phase of her life. The house is so quiet while they’re away, and I am sometimes envious of the experiences they are having while I’m quietly puttering around the home. (Okay, NOW I’m crying). The beauty of it all, even as anguishing as it might be, is growing up is a part of the bigger picture. I am so grateful that my kids have a home base to come back to, that there’s still plenty they’re learning at home because they don’t teach how to milk a cow, weed a flowerbed, or build an adobe oven at school, and the quiet gives me time to reflect on how good it is when they’re all here, making noise and messes. I just hope I can always remember that the chaos is a measure of how good I really do have it.

I hope my kids and all their peers have a wonderful, enlightening, amazing, exciting, and growth-filled school year! Goodbye summer, hello school!