Kindergarten Update May 2010

A blog. Why did I think I wanted to do a blog? To add to the incomprehensible largess, the copious amounts of information, musings and expression of human experience, exploiting the glut of technology at our disposal. To fill the slices of time between what must be done and what I am putting off doing. Hmmm. Yes, a blog.

My last post was in September. Pictures of my dear, sweet, precious Finley going off to his first day of school, terrified. That's always a great thing to get pictures of. We are surviving Kindergarten. It is both much better and worse than I anticipated. Finley's reading! And doing math! Those are indeed wonders and celebrated. I remind him weekly of how fortunate he is to live in a country that educates its people. As imperfect as I may find the public education system it is still a luxury by the world's standards.

Finley is also learning the heartache of a friend's silly cruelty as only another six year old can inflict. He is learning the compulsory boredom of standing in lines and wolfing down lunch to get out to recess with those same cruel friends (who have also hardly eaten their lunches either!).

He came home yesterday and told me about a girl in his class, Haille. "Mom," he says, putting his hand on his chest, "when I look at Haille my heart kind of hurts. She has hair of gold."

He is making up all sorts of rhyming and riddles and they mostly have to do with bodily functions, but hey! What a poet!

Evelyn is doing her best to keep up with Finley. Learning to count, "One, thwee, two, fo...". She has a precocious grasp of language and understands so much more than I give two -year-olds credit for. She also senses the power of emotions and asks me, "Mommy. You happy?" Already, she is apologizing too much, for things that are none of her concern or responsibility. I wonder at how my own idiosyncrasies have found their way to my children so early.