Starting Kindergarten - The Beginning of Many Transitions

I remember feeling how momentous the starting of kindergarten would be for each of my two sons. The build up to the first day of school, planning everything from what they would wear to what would go in their backpacks. The shiny, colorful school supplies carefully checked off the teacher’s list. Meeting the teacher and worrying over whether my son would like kindergarten. Would he behave? Would he learn? Make friends? Transition well? Do what was expected?

The morning of the first day of school arrived, time for smiling while preparing my son from wake up to breakfast to last hugs before stepping outside – setting the morning routine. My stomach flip flopped with private worrying I sloughed over with happy Mom perkiness as we walked out the front door to wait for the school bus. Camera in hand taking photos alongside my husband, waving as he boarded the school bus like the big boy he was becoming.

Like the other parents on the block gulping a little at the feeling that this was such a big transition in our lives as he began his official elementary school years. Hoping he would have a great day and start of the school year while also secretly recognizing this was also about the transition in our parent roles as the first small step toward his growing up.

Glad to know I wasn’t the only Mom hiding a little sniffle and over-worrying the process. And glad to know I wasn’t the only one whose child pranced off the bus with happiness that school is awesome and that the whole going to school the first day wasn’t that big a deal for him. To him this was just another day – yes, the great first day of kindergarten I wanted for him but to him not the separation and transition I felt.

I suppose this is even more so in our generation when most children go to preschool so that kindergarten is not the first time they’ve experienced a school setting. And kindergarten teachers are early education pros at helping kids — and nervous parents — through the transition. (I speak as beneficiary of the same awesome kindergarten teacher for both my sons.) 

To read the rest of the article, please visit my parenting blog at http://gooseling.com/2013/08/20/starting-kindergarten/. Lisa Danielpour is Co-Founder and COO of Gooseling, dedicated to teaching children social & life skills through video game apps. Cavity Dragons is the first game designed to encourage kids to brush their teeth.