I wish I could track down everyone who, two years ago, was ready to label Boots a mental midget just because Big Guy was doing well in kindergarten.
“Gosh, I hope Boots isn’t dumb,” was the …

My only consolation as I read the note from Boots’ teacher is that he wasn’t the one in trouble this time.
Please talk to your children about not having boyfriends and girlfriends at school, she wrote. …

Seeing that I’d already compromised my principles a year ago by using “fruit” snacks to help Big Guy learn to add and subtract, I had no ethical problem whatsoever with sending Boots to hell in …

I’m confused. Genuinely perplexed, as opposed to the fake puzzlement I sometimes try to pull on the guys. As in, “I just don’t understand why you thought it was a good idea to cut gaping …

Boots came home excited to show me what he’d bought at school, and I was excited, too. I’d wondered all day what he would pick.
“Do they have Thomas books?” he’d asked that morning.
“I didn’t notice, …

He trundled to the bus stop less than a football field’s length from our back door, waddling slightly from the balk of a backpack a tad to big for him. He clutched a sheath of …

It was a year-long battle with Big Guy in which the forces of good finally prevailed when he brought his writing up to kindergarten standards on his last report card.
Technically, it was a two-year battle …

They’ve learned to count to 100, by single digits as well as by 5s and 10s.
They’ve learned the sounds that all the letters make, thanks in part to a lovely little alphabet song to the …

I’m not supposed to be here.
I’m supposed to be at a museum 45 miles away, watching 80 kindergarteners ooh and aah over helicopters and fire trucks while they occasionally pay attention long enough to learn …

My eyes turned pea green with a world-class case of baking envy tonight when I saw the darling treats a friend had made for her daughter’s birthday celebration at school.
Elizabeth over at Parenting Pink and …

If I play my cards right, I won’t have to lift a single flash card to get Boots ready for kindergarten.
He and his brother will take care of it. And they’ll even think it’s fun. …

From the second he started  kindergarten, Big Guy gravitated toward Best Buddy.
By the end of the first day, they already knew each other’s names – an accomplishment when you’re not quite 5 and faced with …

Six and a half months into kindergarten, it turns out that I’ve had Big Guy on the wrong approach to homework the whole time.
That’s what Best Buddy says, and if Best Buddy says it must …

For months, Big Guy had asked when his broccoli would come.
His class had planted seedlings during a Halloween visit to a family farm. We visited the plant a few times – the row was marked …

When we last left Big Guy, he was struggling mightly to keep his mouth shut and avoid losing recess time at school. He had brief spurts of success, but largely it was a problem that …

You’re a conscientious objector to flash cards and Brainy Baby videos, but a tiny portion of your brain fears you’ve doomed you kid to life in a dunce cap.
You titter to yourself when parents complain …

Big Guy simply cannot keep his mouth shut. It’s part of his charm, but also part of his downfall.
It keeps landing him in trouble at school, too, and Chatty  Charlie that he is, he always …

Big Guy had big news Friday that he couldn’t wait to share the second Boots and I came to pick him up.
He told other parents on the way home. He told cousins and aunts and …

I panicked and nearly froze Sunday night.
Let’s see … how exactly do I do this?
I think we need a lunch box, on the off chance Big Guy decides to eat at some point Monday. His …

Don’t tell Big Guy’s teacher, but I tossed the “suggested homework” list shortly after it walked through the door at the end of the semester.
Halfway through kindergarten, I’m officially sick of homework even though I …

As of this moment, I will cease and desist griping about the amount of homework Big Guy is assigned.
OK, except for the occasional gripe about its busy-work nature. And I’ll sometimes whine that its focus …

Am I smarter than a fifth-grader? Jury’s still out on that, but I did flunk sixth-grade math last night.
Big Guy’s cousins came over after school, and everyone decided to do their homework immediately instead of …

I’m still a relative novice at this kindergarten game, but thanks to Big Guy’s July start, I’ve been doing it long enough now to know Monday is the Day The Backpack Brings Bad News.
Two weeks …

It’s coming. I’m headed toward it just as sure as the constant snotterfall has rubbed Big Guy’s tiny nose raw.
Any day now, I’ll have to decide whether Big Guy should miss his first day of …

If you have to be in school on Halloween, what better way to spend the day than at the pumpkin patch?
From the excitement of a ride on a school bus to the thrill of picking …

It’s an honor Big Guy has coveted for a week, and that’s an eternity when you’re 5. He’s even been handicapping his chances.
“Xx was Friend of the Week last week,” he said. “We have the …

The second I saw him at kindergarten orientation, I suspected that Big Guy’s grade-school principal was dangerous.
I didn’t realize how dangerous until today, when Mr. S deliberately and systematically dismantled the last weapon I …

First there was little Snow White.
Big Guy met her at day care when they were 1, and they were inseparable for two years. She’d find his lost Bear for him — amazing how early men …