Kindergarten Registration

If you're here visiting for the Blog Party, click here for my post about that. Please feel free to browse as well.

I couldn't sleep last night. I was plenty tired, but just couldn't drift off.

I kept thinking about this morning and what was coming. I registered my babies for kindergarten today. They are so ready. And 90 percent of the time, I am, too.

But last night at midnight, I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready at 1 a.m. either. By 2 a.m. I'm not sure if I was ready, but I passed out anyway, thankfully.

We held Spencer and Allison back from starting kindergarten last fall, although technically they were of age to do so. Their birthday falls within a couple weeks of the cut off date. But we heard about little boys not being as geared for academic settings as little girls. (Generalities, folks, I know, but still...) With our two youngest being twins of the opposite gender, I didn't want to face the possibility, a few years down the road, of one child being ready to progress to the next grade while the other wasn't.

There were other considerations as well. Spencer is wild. It's his nature. He's geared with only about a 5 percent capability to process danger, so very few things scare him. And that really scares me! Anyway, before putting him into a school setting, we felt he needed more time to mature into a body that could sit still a little longer and a spirit that could obey more willingly.

He's the kind of kid that could easily be labeled with hyperactivity or ADHD. And I'll do all I can to prevent that.

Bruce and I differ vastly on the whole hyperactivity/ADHD thing. He thinks it's simply a disciplinary issue. I don't.

My younger brother, Chris, was diagnosed with hyperactivity as a kid. I've seen it at work in a kid, and in a family. I saw dietary changes work to my brother's advantage. I saw Ritalin work to his teacher's advantage. And I saw him labeled as a special ed kid.

I watched Chris be relegated to a separate hallway in high school. One that most kids used simply as passageway to another part of the building, but that housed many of the classrooms for the Sped kids (that's what they were called. Speds.). I hated it for him.

It's not the having hyperactivity or ADHD that bothers me. That is, in my mind, manageable. It's the labeling that gets me. I don't want to deal with that. There are so many ways we're all labeled in life anyway, this is just one that's my pet peeve. I'll homeschool again before medicating my child to make him or her fit better in a classroom setting.

But I've gone off on a tangent. So unlike me!

Other reasons we held them back were so that they'd be among the oldest in their class and not the youngest. This was wisely pointed out to me by my mother-in-law. Later on, our kids will be some of the first to drive in their class. I have far more control over my kids' experiences behind the wheel than I do over their future friends' car time. It's easier to say, "Sorry, no keys for you," than to keep them from hopping into their buddy's car. If their friends don't have car access before they do, I'm good with that. I'm very good with that.

Plus, and here's a big one, now we have three years between Clay starting college and Spencer and Allison starting. Ideally, we'll only pay tuition for all three for one year. Realistically, that's probably not likely, but for now I prefer to live in my fantasy.

And we had a couple of personal things to address at home before sending them to school. They were still napping daily last year when school started. They stopped around Christmas time.

Spencer was still carrying his cloth as a Linus-blanket last August; and Allison was still sucking her thumb. Both kicked their respective habits early this year.

And, prepare yourself, I was still wiping their hineys after Number Twos. Without saying any more, we've covered that territory in the last couple of weeks as well.

Today while registering them, I saw how ready they really are. While we waited, they showed far more restraint than other kids there. (It could have been a fluke. I am prepared to admit that. But, again, my fantasy... let me live it.) This past year has matured them both. That extra year has been a blessing for them.

But for a brief moment, around 1:30 a.m. last night (technically this morning), I considered homeschooling them for kindergarten, like I did Clay. I pushed the thought aside though. In this instance, it would be selfish. It would simply be my way to hold on to them just a bit longer.

Clay wanted to be homeschooled. It was good for him, and so it was good for me.

It would be stifling for Spencer. He needs time away from a mommy whose personality his so closely mimics. (He's got plenty of Bruce in him too, though, so I can't claim all that gumption!) He will do well to have a teacher who is more structured than I am, but less controlling.

And for Allison it would simply be unfair. She has longed to be in Big School. She, too, craves the independence. And she needs some more little girl friends. Mommy is great, but it's been a long time since Mommy was five.

And, the two need time apart from each other to learn. We'll request that they have separate classes, so that neither of them will coast off of the other one's knowledge. And so they won't feel free to lash out at each other in a school setting. (They can save that for home! Lucky me, the referee.)

We gave them an extra year to mature. I wonder if the next four and a half months will be enough for me to grow up so that I can let them go without crying on the first day of school?

Okay, I'll be adult enough to wait until they won't see me cry.