Summer has officially arrived. For the past few weeks, we’ve been counting down the days to summer break in our house, as our oldest son finished up Grade 2.
But when last Friday came around, it seemed like a bit of the excitement that he had been feeling had somehow slipped away, and the reality of not going to school and seeing his friends and teacher five days a week started to set in.
By Friday afternoon, it looked that he was fighting back the tears, despite having a fun day of playing in the sun and swimming pool. When I asked him if he was sad, he simply shook his head yes, and agreed that it was because school was over.
Although it kind of made my heart sad to see the little guy distraught over not going to school for a couple months, this is actually a huge accomplishment. The first two years of school weren’t the easiest on our little family.
Kindergarten was pretty tolerable; with only some days seeing tears when he had to go to school and leave mom, dad and his little brother behind. But in Grade 1, nearly every single day included tears and many days involved full-out meltdowns. Thankfully, once he would get to school, after about 10 minutes, he would settle and act like nothing had happened, leaving his parents to worry throughout the day though.
Grade 2 started with tears also, but not from our son. I remember distinctly dropping him off on the first day of school, preparing myself for what I had become so accustomed to throughout Grade 1. But, to my surprise, it didn’t happen – the only tears came from me – out of pride and happiness that my son had somehow grown up so much over the summer break, and was completely confident going to Grade 2.
And that attitude continued throughout the entire year. The kid must like to work on extremes, because not only did he deal with school much better emotionally, but he also learned a lot, and excelled in a few areas.
On one of the last days of school this year, his teacher – who I must give a lot of credit to, because I believe she certainly had a huge role to play in getting my child to “love” school – handed out some class awards. My son was very proud to get the “Math Whiz” award, and I’m sure will continue to bug me about how he is already better at doing additions in his head than I am.
But, even more importantly as a parent, he received an extra award, which was voted on by his classmates – the “Good Friend” award. For a kid who once had to rely on his classmates to make him feel comfortable and secure at school, it appears that he is now the one who can make others feel happy and included. It may have been a tough year in Grade 1, but Grade 2 has made up for it, and through the experience, it has likely inadvertently taught my eight year old about empathy and treating others kindly when they are having a rough time.
It’s amazing to watch kids grow through the course of a school year, and even over the course of two months during summer break. Just like the Alberta weather though, it appears that my son likes to work on extremes.
