Kindergarten Graduation….

 To my knowledge, there is no Kindergarten Graduation assembly where my daughter will wear a pint-sized cap & gown, stand alongside some of her friends (those who are not napping), wave to her parents anxiously and jump in the air (to reach the graduation freezies) as she is escorted down the rope line, hands on the rope at all times.

I think some schools celebrate this momentous occasion, perhaps it’s up to the teacher to decide and maybe our school doesn’t do it because it would somehow be viewed as bullying the JK students who would only be reminded they have one more year to stack blocks, learn about insects and visit the Pioneer Village a second time, the real test before anyone can be absolutely certain they’re ready for grade one.

I think maybe the thing I’ll remember most about Ellie’s kindergarten career will be the conversations we would have in the morning from the moment she would wake up until getting on the bus.

First, Ellie is a deep sleeper, often requiring a lot of poking and prodding to get her to budge in the morning. If you catch her in the right instant, she will carry her dream into the first part of our “Good Morning” conversation so it is those chats I will treasure.

Me: Ellie, wake up!

Ellie: Bricks and cats in the jello pool….fun, suckers, soapy colours…….is it a school day?

I’ll remember how she would drag herself down the hallway with me shushing her heavy footed stomp to the bathroom while I failed at trying to let her baby sister continue her sleep.

I would whisper hoping she would mirror my quiet demeanor and answer me in her softest speaking voice but more often than not she would reply, “What? What are you saying Mom!” And proceed to yell the next twelve minutes of dialogue.

We would talk about what she wanted to wear but she needed no help in that department. Dresses and skirts for kindergarten until the weather warmed up, then it was dresses and skirts with shorts underneath so she could hang upside down on the monkey bars.

It was just this morning when I asked her how she wanted her hair for school on this, her second last day of kindergarten, something hit me and I’ll remember her answer always.

Me: Ellie, how would you like to wear your hair today?

Her response was as if she’d been planning this second-from-the-last-day-of-kindergarten hair-do since the first day of school.

Ellie: Five braids……………………….or a wig.

Congratulations Graduates!

Never change.

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