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Community Corner

Help! I'm new to Kindergarten

How many of you mommas are nervous (or were nervous) about your child starting kindergarten?

Next week my son starts kindergarten. Every single time I think about this I need to take a deep breath, and I'm still not even sure of why it makes me so nervous. Hopefully some of you mommas have felt the same way?

My son, though, is over-the-moon excited. He can't wait! For the past three weeks, at least once a day he has asked me if he gets to go to school that day. When I tell him not yet, but soon, he has to see the calendar and now exactly what 'soon' means. I love this, and it does help to give me some confidence in knowing that he is going to adjust easily to the new groove of going to school everyday.

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After giving it some thought, I think some of my personal anxiety for my son is the new routine at school that he's going to be in. Sure, he did excellent in preschool last year, but kindergarten is a whole new ball of wax. Even little things, like lunch time, will be new for him. Not so much eating lunch, but I've never really had him eating from a lunch box before either. So, all this week I've been making him all the things I will be making him in his school lunch. Today I his backpack and lunch box arrived, so now I'll have the weekend to give him a few practice rounds eating just like he would in school.

Another way to prep is walking to the school and back. We live fairly close to the school my son will be attending, so I plan on walking to pick him up in the afternoons. This gives us both a 'leg up.’ I'll have the routine down and know how long it takes me to get there, to ensure I'm never late, and he'll know where to look for me when he's let out of the teacher's care.

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Maybe it's just me and I'm an extremely protective mom, or maybe just letting my own nerves get the best of me, but I want to do all I can to set my son up for success in the little areas that I can. Hopefully this week of prep before the big day has paid off!

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