For those of you who have grown with the Superstar's family, you will understand the milestones achieved yesterday. Yesterday, my first born, started kindergarten.
Kindergarten isn't today what it was when I was that age. I recall being incredibly bored in school. It was a feeling that, with great teachers who respected and understood that they, alone, could make the difference between boredom and creative sparks.
Kindergarten was about numbers, letters, reading, and getting along with other kids. Except for the last thing, I had known those things for several years by the time I started school. I was well beyond beginning readers, and I was well versed in my numbers. Getting along with other kids was something I would always struggle with. When you are writing ten page stories in kindergarten, kids who are just learning A-Z have a hard time understanding you.
Still, I got the idea of play. Play was an outlet for this fantastic storytelling that dwelled within me. I could assign characters and develop plots, and I had a ready band of children willing to assist me in acting through my stories. Of course, to them, we were playing house or pet shop. To me, we were working out the kinks of my future novels.
My son is a lot like me. He is a thinker. A ponderer. A person of great intelligence waiting to excitedly find someone who can understand him and speak to him in a language
he understands. He's four, but in so many ways, he is wiser than most adults. He has the features of a four year old, and, in many ways, behaves like a four year old. When it comes to learning, though, he has the spark and knack of someone far older than him.
My son has always been this way. When he was trying desperately to learn to crawl, he would keep trying until he fell back on his belly in exhaustion. One day, he saw a child crawling, and he was riveted to him. He stared in contemplation for what must have seemed like hours to him. At his next opportunity to be on the ground, he crawled.
He learned to walk in much the same fashion. Trying, observation, and success.
One day, about two months ago, my son picked up a new book and read it. We had no idea he was even close to reading. Every day, he recognizes more and more.
My son's passion is animals. When I say passion, I truly mean obsession. He has volumes and volumes of books on animals, which he studies religiously. He can't read most of the books, but he gathers great observations from them. He can tell you, for example, where penguins live, what they eat, and what their babies look like. In fact, he knows all of the continents and which animals do and do not live on them.
For me, watching my son go through these miracles of life are the most precious gifts. There was no way, then, I would ever have missed his first day of kindergarten.
His entourage - grammy, daddy, sister, and I - walked him to his class and checked him in. He placed his new backpack on his hook and his lunch with it. Then he found his seat. We, unfortunately, saw nothing else of his first day of school.
We picked him up at the end time and were so excited. We asked him about school. Apparently, he is so great at school, he only has three subjects left to learn: art, snack, and recess. Oh, and he knows all the girls' names already.
I hope his journey through school continues to be as enthralling as mine, but a little more successful. Superstar can't count the number of times she has wished she had applied herself more in school.
And now, I have two observations to make: one down, one to go - and, only 13 more years until my first retirement plan graduates.
Congratulations, little star.
