School supplies

We're on the cusp. I can feel it. Though our weather doesn't shift with the changing seasons, it feels like fall is within striking distance.

The first day of public school is mere weeks away here. Football suddenly appeared on TV last Sunday. The tourists are thinning out a bit.

Early this week I sat down with our calendar and started to scratch out our schedule for September, filling in squares with weekly ballet class, nature programs at a local county park and various library events. I love fall and it felt good to start laying out a routine for our post-summer days.

I'm excited about some new tools I'd like to try with L as we work on reading, writing and pre-math skills and I think little C is ready to start showing us what he wants to learn, too.

I was feeling pretty charged up about fall and our big plans for the year and then a conversation with another mom at the park brought me to a pause.

Another mother of preschoolers was there with her children and we got to talking while the tots played. The mom asked L whether she would be starting preschool or Kindergarten this fall.

It wasn't an unusual question. I've always been the one to field questions about schooling for our children, so I'm used to explaining our choice to keep our children home right now and I'm usually prepared for the mix of reactions. But for the first time, the question was being directed at L.

I should say, first that it isn't that I feel insecure about our choice. I'm surprisingly content with it. But I think, like most parents, I worry about L feeling different amongst her peers. I don't want her to feel isolated come fall, when everyone else is in and out of preschools all week.

But that day on the playground, I fought the urge to step in and speak for L--to protect her from judgment. I wanted to hear what she understood about the "norm" for schooling children her age and where she stood in all of that.

She paused for a good length of time and stammered a bit, clearly unsure which would be the proper response.

At long last she said: "I'm going to ballet class."

That response elicited a puzzled look from the other mom and I immediately stepped in with a longer explanation of our choice to skip preschool altogether and fill our days with learning at home along with social activities, such as ballet, art class, sports and what-have-you. That was sufficient and we moved on quickly to other topics.

Later that day I asked L about that conversation and what she thought when she heard the question about school.

I informed her that many 4-year-olds go to preschool and that 5-year-olds go to Kindergarten--usually. I braced for questions about why that's so and whether she'll be going to school one day.

No such questions came.

L's reply was clear and confident--even comfortable, I think.

"But I'm learning at home with you. I'm not ready to go to school yet."

And so, for now, I'm assured that she knows just where she is in her social realm and that she couldn't be more excited about her special plans for the fall, just as I have been these recent days. It may all look different come next year, when Kindergarten comes up, but for now, we're ready for our own version of fall. And I'm happy to say it's just around the corner.