Before (The Weeks Leading Up To The First Day)

Summer is officially over. I don't know which was harder; saying good-bye to summer or saying hello to school. Thanks to uniforms, school shopping was painless, but the emotional fluctuation around here was more drastic than a theme park roller coaster. Throughout the summer Beth would cringe and whine whenever she heard mention of school. One morning she took something from Mary and got reprimanded. When I asked her why she snatched from her sister, she wailed, "Because she took it from me first and I DON"T WANT TO GO TO KINDERGARTEN!" Upon any such outburst, Madeleine would come to her aide with confident words of comfort and encouragement about how wonderful school is. She personally couldn't wait to get back to school. Any time we mentioned to Mary that she was going to go to school she reminded us that she was NOT going to school. Then, one fateful day, a fat envelope arrived containing the much anticipated class assignments. Madeleine was so excited you would've thought it was her college acceptance letter or something. She literally trembled waiting for me to open it. I read Beth the letter from her teacher first. She whimpered and sniveled through the whole thing, but the second that she heard her little friend Tori was in her class, her face lit up and she beamed, "I don't even know what all that fussing was about. I can't WAIT to go to kindergarten!" She happily skipped off to go try on her uniform. Madeleine read her letter with enthusiastic haste. She exclaimed, "I got Mrs. Johnson!" but while her face was smiling, her eyes were panicked. Of the three third grade teachers possible, that was the one she didn't want. Her grin became even more forced as she read through the class list and didn't recognize many names on it. She tried to act excited still, but by this time her eyes were brimming. She walked away soberly, and returned tearfully to confess that now she was afraid of school and didn't want to go. From then on SHE cringed when we mentioned school and she couldn't sleep for worrying about it. I read Mary's letter to her and she asked, " You mean I'M going to school??" Boy, did I have my work cut out for me. Over the next two weeks the tension mounted. Beth was still excited, Madeleine was still not, and Mary was still bewildered. I started finding reasons to stop in at the school and walk the girls through the halls. We called school friends and set up play dates. The Saturday before school we attended the family breakfast so that the girls could meet their teachers. That helped a little bit. Then during the week each girl got to attend a class party, with their teachers and classmates in their own classrooms. That helped a lot. By the weekend before school Beth was counting down the days and reminding me what she needed to bring for the first day. Now Madeleine couldn't sleep because she was missing school so much and wanted to go back so badly. Mary was all matter-of-fact about going to HER class, acting like it was something she'd been doing everyday for years. With that roller coaster ride out of the way, we're ready to move on to the next attraction. I have a feeling the weeks to come are going to be a cross between go-cart racing and bumper cars - a lot of "hurry, hurry, hurry" and a few jolts along with all the fun.