School's out

Nine months ago Oliver donned his backpack and headed off to school.  Although he was only to gone for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week - which by even my horrible math skills is just a wee bit of time - I was, sad.  My little Oliver was headed off to experience his own adventures - his own time - time I would not be sharing with him.  Between this selfish feeling and the fact I was feeling guilty because I was not working, yet I was sending my little one out the door to school...


The year had ups and downs.  Oliver struggled with the morning good-bye.  We alternated between doing an extensive round of high-five, pound, fist bump, squid, hug, kiss, wave, foot high-five and then a smile and skip into the classroom and a final wave through the window - and having his teacher take him, screaming from my arms, to the library where he was read books on arachnids or whatever his pleasure was that morning.  The bad stretches were long - two to six weeks - and I could feel the pity from the parents who watched the exchange (and watched Henni who daily took off her shoes, hung her coat in Oliver's cubby and tried to sneak into school) - but the good stretches were happy oases.

While I loved watching Oliver grow and learn over the year, looking back I think my favorite part of school were the walks to and from.  This year was mild so there were only a handful of days we didn't walk.  Yes, we often had trouble getting out the door and determining our means of transportation (stroller, bike, scooter, running...), and sometimes we were slow going - but we had fun.  We chatted, we stopped for coffee, and we checked on the dinosaurs (a woman who is a second grade teacher hides dinos amongst the plants in her front garden - we always stop to check on them.  We were sad when they got put inside for the winter, screamed with excitement when they were put out for the spring, and we now love the challenge of finding them as the plants grow).

I have been looking for the holy grail of schools.  We looked at an embarrassing number before he started at the Montessori in the fall.  And recently I've looked at even more.  But the walks are what get me.  That time together has been so wonderful, I can't imagine giving it up for a car ride somewhere.  And then there was yesterday...


Yesterday Davis, Henni and I got to go to Oliver's last circle.  Oliver, who was sobbing and had to be pealed from my arms in the morning, burst into tears in circle - distraught that school was over.

And now, school's out for the summer....