Be Kind - Rewind!

Today is the last day of elementary school education for our family. It's a bittersweet day full of reflection. And tears. And, I would be dishonest if I didn't say, a huge sigh of relief. As well as a bit of dread, which always seems to accompany the transition from strict schedule and order to no schedule and barely-managed chaos of our typical summer.

Back in August of last year, we received the following card in our mail addressed to our fifth grader:

Hello, my name is Ms. J and I will be your teacher this year.  I hope that you have been "Wild About Reading" this summer.  I am looking forward to meeting you and having an exciting year.

If it had been up to our child, she would have chosen Ms. J to be her teacher herself. The card was received with excitement and anticipation of a great year ahead.

The first day of school only confirmed the promise of the wonderful things to come. Several special friends were in the same class -  we knew we were off to an amazing beginning.  This is a welcome departure for our family from the usually bumpy start to anything new - some of us have harder time embracing, or even accepting change than others. Of course, we still needed to adjust to the new schedule, but all in all, we couldn't ask for a better and smoother transition.

The bliss lasted for exactly one month which is approximately the amount of time it usually takes our family to adopt the school schedule as our 'new normal'. Just as we thought that we had finally nailed down this school thing, our 5th grader stormed in on September 11, carrying the following letter from the principal.