KINDERGARTEN!

My baby is starting kindergarten tomorrow!!!! I am beyond exhausted right now. Being a teacher mom is hard. Being a teacher mom with a baby starting kinder is really really hard. But I am putting aside the strong desire to crawl into bed right this second. Because I want to capture this very moment in time. I need to blog about all the emotions I am feeling the night before I send my first born child off to the big wide world. Kindergarten is a whole new beast. I know it, I taught it for many years. And now I get it. I get why it's so hard for parents to let go and leave their kids that first day. Good thing Santi is dropping him off tomorrow. As much as I want to be there, being a teacher myself means that I have to leave this one up to daddy. And that's ok. It's probably easier on us both. I think I am still in denial. We have read all the books. We attended his teacher meet and greet tonight. I love his teacher. She seems fantastic. Her room looks like it came straight out of Pinterest. She sent him home with a little baggie of magic confetti to put under his pillow tonight to help him sleep. But I know that the thing that matters more than any of that is how she will love and teach MY baby. I always referred to my students as "my babies". And to me they were. But they were also someone else's baby first. And I knew that I was entrusted with their care and education each and every day. And that's a huge responsibility. My prayer for Luca's teacher this year is that she would love him for who he is. That she would recognize his unique qualities that make him special. That she would encourage his imagination and fuel his love for learning. That she would teach him all the things he REALLY needs to know...like how to be a friend, how to lift someone up when they are feeling down, how to be independent, how to persevere through challenges, to not be afraid to try new things,  to show compassion to others...the things that will carry him through life beyond academics. I hope that this new school year is filled with special memories and firsts for Luca, that he makes new friends, grows his confidence, and experiences new and exciting things. So tomorrow I send my baby off to kindergarten. I can only hope I will be too busy on my own first day of school to think about it. But I know he will be on my mind all day.