Thursday, August 15 marked the first day of school for our district. It also happened to be Lilah's 5th birthday. To her, the two events went together like Peanut Butter and Honey. For an entire year, we both eagerly anticipated her first day of Kindergarten. I envisioned a brand new dress and shoes we'd buy mid-summer but that would gather dust on the shelf until August 15th when she'd no doubt scuff them upon first wear. Daddy would be there to see her off. There would be the token first day of school picture by the lamppost, wearing her new dress, already scuffed shoes and the pink and brown backpack we'd bought for PreK last year in anticipation of K this year. I have no idea what her vision was for the first day of school. She'd never been. But I imagine she thought it would be a lot like Ms. Dana's class, right down to her favorite friends.
For me, I thought about the excitement, the pictures, the new dress and scuffed shoes and the tears that I knew I would shed. Yep, that's the picture I'd painted of Lilah's first day of school. The anticipation of bringing her home to share a plate of cookies and all the details of her first day. I couldn't wait!
And then in mid-May, God's call to Homeschool became unmistakable. In an instant, I gave up my dream of sending her off to her first day of K. I spent my summer planning and dreaming up all the fun things we'd do and learn together. My excitement was contagious and she was an eager pupil, so I moved our first day up to August 6th. By the time the 15th rolled around, we were 10 days into school and she'd learned all but 6 of her single letter phonograms. Of course, that's about all we'd gotten done but it was a great start!
So when the 15th dawned an absolutely beautiful day and my Facebook Newsfeed was filled with first day of school pictures for our friends, I was a little sad that my daydream for Lilah's first day of K wouldn't be a reality. But then I let her dance around the lamppost, loaded her up and took her to Deanna Rose to play. There may be a lot of experiences she'll miss out on, but there will be infinitely more that she'll gain.
At Deanna Rose. Hey I said "Let me take your picture." I didn't qualify that he needed to smile at the camera
