Back to School

Over the past few days we have gone shopping for clothes, shoes, a backpack and school supplies. We have struggled through crowds, and we didn’t even shop on the weekend. Forty million moms and their kids crawling over the notebooks and glue sticks. Don’t even THINK about taking your buggy down that aisle.

I think I’m more eager than Lil to get this year started. Not for the reasons you’d think. Oh I’m sure at some point like any parent I’ll be glad to send her away for a few hours, if only for some quiet time to read. But right now I want to be along side her walking into the classroom and learning new things. Simple things. Solid things. Like 4+6. I loved the smell of the chalk, the smell of new crayons. The new sounds- the pencil sharpener, the teacher’s voice. And the clear sound of the school bell.

My favorite visual in the classroom when I was in elementary was the bulletin board. Delicate and detailed, the colorful corrugated borders. The carefully cut letters and meticulously pinned shapes and pictures. Autumn leaves, Halloween witches, holiday cheer. The sum of which equals a melting pot of learning and creativity.



This morning over coffee and Farmville, Lillian was playing “school” with the dry erase board. She went right to work on writing words. This was promising. Sheena and I smiled at each other. Finally a glint of eagerness for the coming school year. Lil wrote one word on the board. Duck. I was impressed. I asked her to try and write Luck. She did! Now Lillian was the teacher and Sheena and I the students. We took turns raising our hands to suggest other words that rhyme with Duck. We went through several. Luck.. Truck.. Muck… Buck… it was Lil’s turn. I waited and watched with curiosity. I had run out of words. There it was. She started with the first letter F. Followed by a U… and a C… I whispered to Sheena. “This one is all you.” By the time she finished the K, she was asking, “What does this say?” Sheena was quick with the firm correction and appropriate discussion about that word. I was trying to keep a serious and straight face.

Yes. It is definitely time to go back to school.