Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who was about to climb his very first beanstalk. He had a fresh haircut and a brand new book bag.
Even though his friends in the neighborhood had climbed this same beanstalk almost every day last year, this was Jack's first day and he was a little nervous. So was his mother.
Early in the morning she brought him to the foot of the beanstalk. She talked encouragingly to Jack about all the fun he would have that day and how nice his giant would be. She reassured him that she would be back to pick him up at the end of the day. For a moment they stood together, silently holding hands, gazing up at the beanstalk. To Jack it seemed much bigger than it had when his mother had pointed it out on the way to the store last week. His mother thought it looked big, too. She swallowed. Maybe she should have held Jack out a year...
Jack's mother straightened his shirt one last time, patted his shoulder and smiled down at him. She promised to stay and wave while he started climbing. Jack didn't say a word.
He walked forward, grabbed a low-growing stem and slowly pulled himself up to the first leaf. He balanced there for a moment and then climbed more eagerly to the second leaf, then to the third and soon he had vanished into a high tangle of leaves and stems with never a backward glance at his mother.
She stood alone at the bottom of the beanstalk, gazing up at the spot where Jack had disappeared. There was no rustle, no movement, no sound to indicate that he was anywhere inside.
"Sometimes," she thought, "it's harder to be the one who waves goodbye than it is to be the one who climbs the beanstalk."
She wondered how Jack would do. Would he miss her? How would he behave? Did his giant understand that little boys sometimes acted silly when they felt unsure? She fought down an urge to spring up the stalk after Jack and maybe duck behind a bean to take a peek at how he was doing.
"I'd better not. What if he saw me?" She knew Jack was really old enough to handle this on his own. She reminded herself that, after all this was thought to be an excellent beanstalk and that everyone said his giant was not only kind but had outstanding qualifications.
"It's not so much that I'm worried about him," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that he's growing up and I'm going to miss him."
Jack's mother turned to leave. "Jack's going to have lots of bigger beanstalks to climb in his life," she told herself. "Today's the day he starts practicing for them... And today's the day I start practicing something too: cheering him on and waving goodbye."
And if THAT didn't make you cry, you've probably never sent a child to Kindergarten :-)
That was in the mail today with a note from Brent's teacher, telling us about the Open House and stuff on Monday. His first day of Kindergarten is Wednesday, the 30th. Up until receiving this little story, I haven't been upset about him starting or longing for him to be little again... but this made me BAWL. And I can hardly see the computer for all the tears from re-typing it! I'll post pictures and details about his first day next week. In the meantime, wish me luck in not crying until the bus is actually gone and he can't see me :-)
4 comments:
That made ME misty. I really like it, though. I'm going to use it in class tomorrow. Maybe I'll go through and have them find the verbs and nouns and other exciting things we've been learning about. =-)
Speaking of which, I had a verb activity the other day; they got to pick a song and circle 10 verbs in the lyrics. I told them no bad words or inappropriate language. One student (the one I was so worried about but has turned out to be great; in fact, he has a B in my class. They recently had a test and he was standing by my desk till I graded his because he was so eager to see how he did) picked a particular song but was thoughtful enough to go through and replace all the "hoes" with "girls." What a nice boy.
BTW Renee, congrats on your weight loss!! And I can't wait to hear all about Brent's first day and your state of mental health. =-)
That was really cute, but I gotta be honest and say that I didn't cry. It is really sweet though and I think it's even cooler that his teacher sent that to you. She already sounds like one helluva teacher. Good luck in kindergarten Brent! You'll do great. Oh and good luck Renee, hopefully you'll keep yourself mostly together.
Oh hell...I am in big trouble, Mason starts preschool the end of September and I am having a hard time with that! Geesh, kindergarten will be a real problem for me...I got a bit misty from this...
Oh hell...I am in big trouble, Mason starts preschool the end of September and I am having a hard time with that! Geesh, kindergarten will be a real problem for me...I got a bit misty from this...
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