Clover Lane

I am SO with YOU about Kindergarten! It seems like the "it" thing to do to start your kids at age four almost five here. Not me. I start mine five just shy of six and have zero regrets. I am a selfish mom and want them home with MEEEEEEEE!

Keep up the great writing... I love to read up on you and your cute family. You always remind me to enjoy the stage I am in. I love that.

Janey is such a sweetheart!! Love this picture.

I agree wholeheartedly with you about our schools rushing our kiddos. It is so frustrating that most kindergarten programs are now full-day. Our little fella is in kinder this year and it has been so hard on him to stay for an 8 hour day. He comes home so tired and worn out. And then the homework on top of it is really taxing for him and it's sad that at 6 yrs. old, he already has a negative attitude about school. So, so different from our kindergarten experience all those years ago.

Thank you for sharing that even with Janey you panic a bit when you leave her. I am pregnant with my third and I feel like some people act like after your first you are supposed to not care anymore about them crying or leaving them or whatever. Drives me nuts! Yes, I know they'll live but that's my baby and I want them to be great, not just ok.

You are so wise...And that Janey is toooo precious!

Great post....I loved my own kindergarten years my teacher was Mrs Kump and I remember hugging her and kissing her hello when I saw her the following September when I was moving up to 1st grade....your babies are sweet!

unfortunately kindergarten is no longer learning through play and experiential exploration :( in my district they jump right to the basics and teach academics from the start. because of this kids get overwhelmed, stressed out, cannot problem solve or work together, and right now i have a 3rd grader who cannot tie his shoes! uugghh! so frustrating!
but, it sounds like you have the perfect set up!be thankful :)

It is sad what has happened to Kindergarten and I believe it is under-serving our boys especially.

I hate that feeling of anxiety created by cell phones....I have done the same thing. But if we dig back in our memories, how much we used to do and rarely had to check in because we didn't have cell phones!

Janey looks like she is ready to fly! What a cutie!

We have sunshine today and I'm going to try to force myself out for a walk. It is amazing how the sunshine energizes me - even when I'm in the house!

Oh gosh--rushing home--I am so relieved and surprised that that is not just my personal first-time-mom anxiety problem. If moms like you do that from time to time, I feel a lot better. Hehe.

1) That picture is about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

2) AMEN on half day K. My younger child begged me to go to Lunch Bunch and other wraparound programs, and I let him (some days--he is a social soul and needed the friend time to be happy, and I felt I had to respect that, even when my wishes would have been to snap him back home)--but my older child came home from AM K starving and exhausted, and after wolfing down a lunch would sleep, soundly, for two hours. 180 days of K I thanked God that we could provide that for him for that year (we had scrimped and so I could take off work that year--and I will never regret it).

Thanks for the validation (still nice, even in the rear view mirror) and oh, the memories of the flappy turtle stage!

PS--something else that often makes me think of you--my older boy had a great K teacher and the first thing she said to us was, "I can't take them out for recess as much as I want to and as often as they should be there. The state has 178 pages of 'standards' to be met for kindergarten and I have 180 half days to meet them. PLEASE plan for outside time with your kids because they will need it and even though as an early childhood educator I know they need it, I can't give it to them." Another thing to thank God for--I couldn't give him a classroom experience but my word, I could take him to the playground every day, so that's what we did after his nap. I loved her for her candor, among other things. Here's hoping your guy gets a similarly good experience!

Janey looks just like you! Well done girl!!
I live in Greece where kiddos go to kindergarten at age 5 either from 8-12 noon or 8-3 afternoon. My son attends the 8-12 and he'd like another hour for sure!
Here spring is in full swing and I can't wait to start springcleaning the house!

I love the 'flappy' stage!! How precious is that? And I am glad you got some shopping time!! It is always fun to shop for little people's clothes!! And yes, they are rushing our little ones too fast these days...the public schools here don't allow nap time anymore...geez!! I bet if they gave back nap time and let them have more fun in Kindergarten the kids would be better behaved. They are probably all just sleepy! LOL!!

Love seeing your Janey pictures. They always make me smile. She's just beautiful.

Janey is soo cute and smiley! ...and she has Sophie...my son loved that 'lil giraffe too. :) Have a great day Sarah!javascript:void(0)

I've done that rush home from shopping deal, LOTS. And 9 times out of 10 they are ALL still sleeping. :)
We are depended on so much, and we take our role super seriously. It's nice when we see we didn't have to worry, or see that dad can handle things just fine too. Lightens the pressure load some, doesn't it?
I can't believe Janey is already 6 months. WOW!

First of all, Janey is just precious! I loved that stage, too.

I am with you on K. I think 1/2 is plenty - their little minds can only handle so much stimulation. My daughter went to all day (the only option here)& did fine (although she was exhausted and crabby when she got home)but her b-day is in January so she was older. I saw the younger ones struggle so much it broke my heart. Here they do 90% of the academics in the morning and after lunch is basically play time and specials so the afternoon ends up being day care. No naps, either.

I completely agree on the half day kindergarten thing. They have their whole life to go to school full day, why start their school career by exhausting them?

I also agree, 100%, on hating winter. Seriously. I actually love reading when you bag on winter, because I am so there with you! I just want to get my kids outside, and open my windows, and enjoy the long days. Soon. Not soon enough, but soon.

Perfect photo, Sarah!

So Cute! She looks so much like Patrick!

So glad I am not the only one that thinks full day Kinder is too much. I was shocked to learn that was what my daughter would be doing (just moved to San Diego from Seattle where it was half day kinder). She will be one of the older ones but I can't believe she will be away from me from 7:45-2:15!

You may have 6 kids together . . .but YOU are Mommy. LOL!

Well, my kids had to go to daycare. It was really hard to find a day care that just let them play. They all wanted to trumpet their preschool programs. And the thing was, the day care staff agreed with me, they said all the parents wanted their kids doing school work and not "just playing". And that was almost 40 years ago. My son is a November baby and I started him a year later than the year for which he was eligible. Now they don't even let them start school that early, so that's a good thing. It's so difficult to keep them from growing up so fast.

I would have freaked out jus lik you! My mother in law always says let them cry....its how they get tired but I could not. She says she used to let the baies cry while tending to oldest. She has 9 so I guess she knows somthings just not for me! Love that Janey!

Yea! I needed a Janey fix!! :)

I totally agree about kindergarten! My oldest daughter went to a public school where she went five days a week from 8:30am until 4:00pm! It would have been longer if she had ridden the bus but I opted to drive her. We did two years of that before I yanked her out and started homeschooling her. She is a much happier and relaxed child these days.

My middle daughter is in kindy right now at a private Christian school and I just love their schedule! She goes three half days a week and that's it! It is perfect for her and our family. Yes, she does more adcademic things than I did at that age, however, there is still a lot of play built into her mornings.

Since I homeschool my oldest two, I have done a lot of reading on the subject. Did you know that while our children spend more time at school and more time doing academic work our nation's test scores have continued to fall? I have read about how important that creative play in childhood is. It helps your brain to form certain connections that are critical later on for problem solving. Most schools spend very little time on recess or creative/free play and I think that is harming our children in the long run. I am all about kids being kids for as long as they can. There will be plenty of time for them to follow schedules and have responsiblity but childhood is such a fleeting moment that should be treasured.

All that being said, I am off to build snowmen and have a snowball fight with my kids! :)

That's how I imagined Kindergarten when I sent my first off BUT it is NOTHING like I thought it was back in the day. Now they practically need to know how to read, write all the numbers up to 100, 50 sight words, etc, etc. Completely overwhelming for a parent sending off her first little one to Kindergarten.... so sad now-a-days!!