5 years, 8 months.
Dear Jack,
Exactly three decades ago in August 1986, I began Kindergarten back at Forest Avenue Elementary in Fort Payne, Alabama. I remember how much I cried, begging your Nana (my Mommy) not to leave me there.
She said, “Oh look, it’s Heath Owen. He’s the son of lead singer of Alabama (the Country music group).”
Somehow that distraction helped ease the chaos in my mind. After all, “Roll On Eighteen Wheeler” was, by default, by favorite song around that time.
I will quickly acknowledge that your first day and first week of Kindergarten have been nothing like that. Instead, you have been literally and figuratively hopping to go to school.
You love it!
Granted, you have been in daycare, and then preschool, since you were 7 months old; which was 5 years ago.
So for the past 5 years of your life, it has been completely normal to spend most weekdays with a teacher and other students.
Simply put, you were more than ready to start Kindergarten this week. I know you’re going to have a very exciting year!
It just so happened that your first day of Kindergarten was also your sister Holly’s first day at daycare.
She’s only half the age you were when you started going to preschool. There’s no doubt it’s a heavy psychological thing for a parent to drop off their baby all day, for the first time. It’s just not easy.
But I know in the end, I will see the positive benefits that come from growing up in day care and preschool.
I just look at you. You are so bright, so creative, so eager to learn, so energetic, and yet so behaved for your teachers.
So as tough as it is to see Holly go to daycare this week, I know that you turned out just fine… and are going to make the best Kindergartner I know!
Love,
Daddy
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