April 12, 2013
It's official. My daughter, my little baby girl, is now registered for Kindergarten. Yep, she starting in the fall, so I have that long to work on not balling my eyes out when I take her to class the first day. I waited in line in the cold to get her in the school I wanted. But when it was my turn to go into the office, I could feel my eyes welling up. I held it together, good thing too, because I didn't want my daughter's future principal to think I was a basket case and one of "those moms" right off the hop. I totally am, but it doesn't hurt to let the staff at my daughter's new school to get to know me first.
At first I really couldn't figure out where the tears and the lump in my throat were coming from at the thought of my little monkey starting Kindergarten. I mean, there's lots to choose from of course. The big one is that she is growing up. She's not my baby anymore. It makes me feel old, since I clearly remember the day I started Kindergarten myself. But I think the true reason for my mopey demeanour at the thought of her marching into school on her first day is that it is the first day of her letting go of me.
For five years I've been it in her life. I was the one who feed her, changed her, dressed her, played with her (okay well, the better half did too!) We were the most important people in her lives. And she always will be the most important person in our lives. And it's not that I think she's not going to love me one day after Kindergarten. I just feel like that's when she'll really grow up and time will march on even faster than it has these last five years. She'll make new friends, get busy doing new things and I'm excited for her about what the future holds. It's just the selfish me wiping those tears off my face, realising how quickly it will all go by and wanting to relish each moment.
Friday 12 April 2013
Friday 5 April 2013
April 5, 2013
I think there should be a refresher school course for parents. My little monkey loves books. She's still working on the reading part, but I know she'll get it in the next year. The better half and I field endless requests for "can you read me a story?" We try to oblige as often as possible. After all, it was our doing. We taught her from a very early age to love reading and books. When she was only a few days old the better half started reading her the sports section out of the Brandon Sun. Both writers ourselves, we knew fostering the love of reading started early. Besides, it gave us another way to interact with her when she was an infant and babies really respond to your voice and the attention. Not all of her books have been that interesting. She loves Disney Princess books or any book about princesses or fairies. We've really covered that subject. And I found the ABC the counting to 100 books a little dull.
But now I'm quite delighted that know we've discovered "Fancy Nancy," books written by Jane O'Connor. O'Connor seems to have great insight to the person my little girl is. Fancy Nancy is a little girl, about 7 or 8 years-old that loves everything fancy. But what's really great about O'Connor's books is that the author is teaching her readers something as they are enjoying reading about Fancy Nancy's adventures. Fancy Nancy also likes to use big words, and this has increased my five year-old's vocabulary substantially since we got into these books. It's the adventures my monkey reads about in books, that makes me wish there was a brush up course on these subjects for parents. The latest Fancy Nancy is about a school trip to the planetarium and discusses Fancy's Nancy's love of stars.
So quite rightly, my daughter assumes I know everything and asks me to name some other constellations (her big word this week). "Um, I say, the little dipper, the big dipper, Gemini, Pegasus..." I was short by about 84 constellations. So if summer ever comes, I've promised to keep the monkey up past her bedtime and drive out to a dark field somewhere with the better half's telescope where we can gaze at all the stars. The one good thing about spring being so late this year is that I have time to brush up on my space knowledge so I can continue my daughter's illusion that her mother knows everything!
I think there should be a refresher school course for parents. My little monkey loves books. She's still working on the reading part, but I know she'll get it in the next year. The better half and I field endless requests for "can you read me a story?" We try to oblige as often as possible. After all, it was our doing. We taught her from a very early age to love reading and books. When she was only a few days old the better half started reading her the sports section out of the Brandon Sun. Both writers ourselves, we knew fostering the love of reading started early. Besides, it gave us another way to interact with her when she was an infant and babies really respond to your voice and the attention. Not all of her books have been that interesting. She loves Disney Princess books or any book about princesses or fairies. We've really covered that subject. And I found the ABC the counting to 100 books a little dull.
But now I'm quite delighted that know we've discovered "Fancy Nancy," books written by Jane O'Connor. O'Connor seems to have great insight to the person my little girl is. Fancy Nancy is a little girl, about 7 or 8 years-old that loves everything fancy. But what's really great about O'Connor's books is that the author is teaching her readers something as they are enjoying reading about Fancy Nancy's adventures. Fancy Nancy also likes to use big words, and this has increased my five year-old's vocabulary substantially since we got into these books. It's the adventures my monkey reads about in books, that makes me wish there was a brush up course on these subjects for parents. The latest Fancy Nancy is about a school trip to the planetarium and discusses Fancy's Nancy's love of stars.
So quite rightly, my daughter assumes I know everything and asks me to name some other constellations (her big word this week). "Um, I say, the little dipper, the big dipper, Gemini, Pegasus..." I was short by about 84 constellations. So if summer ever comes, I've promised to keep the monkey up past her bedtime and drive out to a dark field somewhere with the better half's telescope where we can gaze at all the stars. The one good thing about spring being so late this year is that I have time to brush up on my space knowledge so I can continue my daughter's illusion that her mother knows everything!
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