Okay, I have to admit that I’m envious of Claire – she gets to spend her days in a kindergarten class, and it’s made me nostalgic for those halcyon days of my own past. My love for kindergarten is both philosophical and practical.
In a world full of chaos, the kindergarten classroom is its own little universe of structure and order. The hook where you hang your coat and book bag has your name above it, your box of crayons has your name on it, everything has a place and usually gets put back in its place. This almost never happens at our house. If I opened the pen/pencil drawer in the kitchen and actually found a pen or a pencil in there, I’d probably faint.
A kindergarten classroom is so colorful. The walls are covered with groups of tidy layouts in every imaginable color combination; a graphic artist’s dream and nightmare all rolled into one. And so many school and art supplies, I love them! These things encourage creativity – almost everything in kindergarten is an art project, even the math. Drawing and coloring and playing with glue are part of the curriculum. Well, at least we do a lot of this at home, too. Especially on the walls…
Books get priority in kindergarten. This is my idea of heaven. Can you remember getting to spend a big portion of your day with books? The joy of learning to read? Being read to? In kindergarten, it requires no suspension of disbelief to enjoy the stories. That gingerbread man you made in class really did hop out of the oven and run away while you were at recess. And now he’s sending postcards from around the globe!
People are nice. They know that “warm fuzzies” are things you say to make folks feel good, and that “cold pricklies” are better left unsaid. Kindergarten kids know that “please” and “thank you” are important words – they work like magic – and they can’t really ever be overused. It’s okay to talk about your feelings in Kindergarten, and even more amazing, people usually listen. Kindergarten is a place where it’s safe to be yourself – too bad the world isn’t taking notes.
Plus, there’s an extra benefit in the kindergarten classroom: the signs and books and labels all have big enough print that you can read them without putting on your reading glasses first (and believe me, this is big)…
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