Jocelyn's Last Day of School

Today Jocelyn completed her year in her three-year-old preschool class. It was a day that I feel very aptly represents what this year has been like. We got to school on time and in great spirits. The kids were to be dismissed early for their end-of-the-year picnic and party, so I spent my hour or so running a few errands. I got done everything I needed to and in perfect time. Then about a mile from the school, I received a phone call from Ben that he was running back to the house because he had forgotten the kids' lunches. We arrive at the school, I let Molly out of her car seat for a minute before getting her out, and open the car door to discover she has had an accident and is soaked from navel to knee. I grabbed the extra set of clothes from my car and raced to change Molly before getting Jocelyn out of her classroom. All in all, the final 5 minutes of that time frame seemed to completely undo the productivity of the previous 60. Once I had the chance to step back I realized this was not the case, but it is so easy to let the little bad moments erase all the good moments.

This is how Jocelyn's year has been. We started off the year great. She has always loved going to school - there has not been a single morning that I have had to coerce her in any way to go to school. She looks forward to seeing her teachers and friends, and loves every part of her school day. Her favorite centers were art and music, and her favorite job was to be the line leader. The past few months we have seen Jocelyn struggle a bit. She began with some bad behavior that was getting her sent to time out. That situation improved, only to give way to severe mood swings that left Jocelyn crying so hard she made her head hurt, and took herself out participating in many of the classroom activities. Especially as this has all happened towards the end of the year, it has been hard to feel good about this school year overall. And yet, these few instances of bad behavior don't discount all the progress Jocelyn has made this year. She can now spell and write her own name. She still struggles with pronunciation but is much improved since September and has a terrific vocabulary. She has learned how to socialize with her classmates - how to take turns, share her thoughts and feelings, and resolve conflicts. (Again, we're far from perfect, but the concepts are there that weren't at the beginning of the year.) Overall Jocelyn had a great year. If you were to ask her she would not say a single negative thing about her school experience this year. We may have some work to do this summer, but the few hiccups will not taint the overall great year we celebrated this morning.

Jocie with her two wonderful teachers, Mrs. Woodworth and Mrs. Beckman