Today we celebrated another milestone in Isabella’s life: her graduation from kindergarten. It honestly feels like just yesterday I was blogging about the difficulties of signing her up for school , and about her first day of school .

The school year can’t be over already, can it?

This morning, parents were invited to a school-wide awards ceremony, which was considered the kindergarten graduation ceremony, and afterward, Isabella’s class performed a little recital for us parents.

(I’d like to say something about the concept of kindergarten graduation… I didn’t have such a thing when I was a kid, nor did I have an eighth grade graduation; just high school and college, like it should be. Schools and childcare experts are so big on building children’s self-esteem these days. And that’s important, but in my opinion, it doesn’t mean anything if everyone gets the same special treatment. One of my favorite lines in the film The Incredibles is, "Saying everyone is special is just like saying no one is." Giving a bunch of 6-year-olds a diploma for doing what they’re supposed to do—going to school every day—makes them feel good, sure, but it might not be sending the right message. I fear we are promoting mediocrity. Okay, I’m done.)

After the (absolutely adorable) recital, all of the parents stayed for refreshments in the kids’ classroom. I looked around that room, thinking back to the parents’ orientation on the first day of school, when I sat in the same exact seat as today, actually. I remember on that first day imagining that, throughout the year, I’d make friends with all of the other moms and that I’d get super involved in Isabella’s school activities. Turns out, I did neither. (I never even saw the other moms, and she didn’t really have any school activities.)

But a lot has definitely happened since that day—changes I hadn’t expected…

1. Isabella has become this independent little thing. When your child goes to school, you have to let go and trust the fact that they’re going to figure out what they’re doing. You have to trust that they’ll be the liaison between teacher and parent, that they’ll know when to get on and off the bus and how to pay for their lunch and turn in their homework. Nine months ago, I thought Isabella was too young to do these things by herself, but she’s doing them just fine because she has to in order to survive the school environment.

2. Isabella is not nearly as shy as she used to be. From being called on in class, to establishing a solid network of friends, to the aforementioned independence, my little girl has certainly broken out of her shell.

3. Isabella’s interests have changed, and for the better. She used to be obsessed with anything pink and princess. Now she likes sports and animals and music and monkey bars. She’s become less of a girly-girl (although that’s still there, believe me) and more just a regular kid whose eyes are wide open to the many fascinating possibilities in front of her. She’s not locked down to the stereotype of what all little girls are supposed to be, what they’re supposed to like and not like.

These are just some of the many changes that have occurred in a mind-bogglingly short period of time. I look ahead 12 years from now, when she’ll be graduating from high school (a REAL graduation). I can only imagine the long list of life lessons she will have learned at that point. I hope her development continues in the path that has already begun, preparing Isabella for a life full of challenges and accomplishments, failures and triumphs, mysteries and celebrations.

Happy Last Day of Kindergarten, Isabella.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under parent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.