First Day II...Electric Boogaloo

Kiernan had his first day of school last month. Actually, this was his second first-day-of-school, as this is his second year of preschool. He was held back because he just couldn't cut it last year. It turns out mastering the names of all the planets and most of the major moons of our solar system just isn't good enough out here in California.

Kidding.

His preschool, CSUN Lab School (which I talk about in detail here), allows him to experience two years of preschool before he goes on to kindergarten. He is there every weekday for two-and-a-half hours a day. It's a great experience, a great chance for him to socialize with other kids and to get away from us for a little bit every day.

This year's first day of school was strikingly different from last year's, when he was starting at CSUN Lab for the first time. He had gone through a transition class that summer before starting school, so he was more or less prepared to separate from us for school. Still, the first couple of days were difficult. He eventually got into the swing of things and did very well, developing friendships and enjoying himself a great deal. This year there was no difficulty with separating on the first day of school as just a couple weeks before he had attended the summer session. The only real problem with this second go round was that a couple of his main friends had moved on.

Last year Kiernan was in a group of friends who called themselves "The Police" due mainly to the fact that "Synchronicity" was their favorite album. [Actually, truth be told, Kiernan prefers "Ghost in the Machine", but he didn't want to rock the boat.] Okay, okay. They called themselves The Police because they liked to pretend to be police every day during outside play. They'd designate a specific area/piece of playground equipment as their police station and then they'd set about putting bad guys in jail. They were very particular about who could and could not be in their little group, and Kiernan was quite proud of being included since he was clearly the youngest member. The whole thing was probably cute in action, but having never seen it firsthand, it always struck me as disturbing just hearing about it. I mean, what in the world are four year olds doing establishing cliques already? Seriously.

At any rate, most of The Police have moved on to solo careers, including the most important of Kiernan's school friends, Kevin. That was a devastating loss.

All of this is to say that it was fascinating for me to watch Kiernan that first day of school. Several of his older friends were gone, and a couple of them had been replaced by younger siblings. Cassidy was in a different school, replaced by her little brother Michael. And Elliott had moved on as well, replaced by his little brother Ian. That first day Kiernan went to sit in the reading area with Ian, and it just hit me how much older Kiernan looked. I suddenly went back to last year, when he was the little boy tagging along with the older boys. Now he was the older boy, opening a book and reading it with the little brother of one of his friends from last year. In the space of what seems so short a time he has gone from tagalong to big kid.

I dug out last year's pictures of the first day of school just to do a little comparison. I will get in trouble for a this year's pictures because Kiernan's socks apparently look ridiculous. And also none of the pictures of him at the door on that first day are that great. But for comparison's sake I think it's worth it to post them. It's also cool to see his three best bedtime friends--Meow Meow Kitty Cat, Guinea Pig, and Pooh Bear--in the exact same positions. I swear I did not pose them that way.

















[The pictures on the right, in the blue shirt, are from 2007. The pictures on the left, in the brown shirt, are from 2008.]