Getting Ready to Say Goodbye to Pre-K

June 6th, 2014 by ariana

Dear Jasper, it’s been a long time (too long) since I devoted a post all to you, but I wanted to write about what happened in the car yesterday.

We were driving home from Daycare and I asked you how you felt about pre-k “graduation” day being only a few weeks away. You asked how many days it was, and when I told you, it was like flipping a switch and you suddenly understood, truly understood what all the recent events have been leading up to. The practicing for graduation, the kindergarten orientation, the kindergarten screening. It’s all been leading up to the unavoidable fact that you are leaving the daycare center that has been your second home for 5.5 years.

I almost wonder if because you’ve watched two other groups of friends graduate and move on if you didn’t somehow miss the fact that you would be one of them this year. Whatever the reasons, once it sunk it, you collapsed into a fit of tears in your carseat. It broke my heart to see you so sad, and to not even be able to hug or comfort you from behind the wheel. So I tried to minimize the damage, assuring you that you would make NEW friends, and that we would still see your old friends on weekends for playdates, that you would still be able to visit the center when we pick up your sisters. But you were not assuaged, and so I asked you what you would miss. You said tearfully your friends, your teachers, your school. And I again told you we would still see your friends, but you cried that you wanted to see them EVERY day.

And though my heart broke for you in that moment, I was also so proud of you, for the depth of your feelings at such a young age, for the depth of the friendships you’ve forged and the maturity it takes to recognize that something so precious must be cherished.

I have a lot more to say about the 5+ wonderful years you’ve spent at daycare, but I’ll save them for graduation. Until then, I know that you will make the most of every day you have left with the friends and “family” you’ve made these past 5 years.