A Year of Blogging: April 21, 2011

April 21 was Kindergarten Day. I loved Kindergarten. I don't remember my first day, but I remember the year. Kindergarten was wonderful. Our teacher, Mrs. Hogue, was incredible. She was sweet, soft-spoken, and kind. Her children were much older than us, and she was easily in her 50s when she was my teacher. But she seemed so young. She was full of energy. She was what I have always thought a kindergarten teacher should be. A large tree was painted on the wall in the hallway outside the kindergarten door. I don't remember what the tree was for. I do remember it was so welcoming and friendly. The room was huge- there was an area at the front of the room with our little tables and chairs. The entire back of the room was a play area. The room had it's own bathroom, which was very handy for five year olds. Each work table had a basket of crayons. The room was lined with colorful book shelves. Throughout the year, we learned about the letter people. The vowels were female and the consonants were male. Once we had studied a letter person, the big inflatable letter person balloon went onto the shelf. By the end of the year, the room was surrounded by the letter people from Ms. A to Mr. Z . Our kindergarten was an all day event. We rode the bus in the morning, and came home in the afternoon- just like the big kids. So we had nap time in kindergarten. We had flat mesh green cots that we used each day for our naps. They stacked at the side of the room when we weren't using them. We each had a cubby, and we kept our coats and other things (probably blankies) in the cubbies. I got the chicken pox in kindergarten. My neighbor and best friend Drew had them first. I brought work home to him. Just as he was recovering, I came down with them. My parents were out to dinner and our babysitter, Chris, had to call mom and tell her to come home. By the time my parents got home, I was covered in spots. Just as I was getting better, Drew's sister Joylane came down with them, and just as she started to feel better, my sister caught them. It went back and forth between the two houses for more than a month until finally all four of us were done with the chicken pox. My favorite memory of Kindergarten came on our graduation day. My dad left for work that morning. Mom and the other moms came to help us get into our little gowns and paper hats. She told me she had a surprise in the gym for me (where graduation was to be held). I was certain it was a horse! Oh, the innocence of children. I never questioned how she would get a horse into the gym, or where we were going to keep it. I just knew I was getting one. When we walked into the gym I didn't see a horse. I saw something better- my dad! He was sitting in the audience with my sister. It was the best surprise. In September, another generation starts Kindergarten. I hope Sydney will find it as happy and wonderful as I did. Of course, it also means we are 12 years away from another big graduation. Hopefully the years will go slowly, we want to enjoy every moment.