Left behind

We have finished Miss E's first week of kindergarten and it has gone great. Better than great - it has been FANTASTIC. Those of you who know her know what a big deal this is. She is entering the classroom happy, riding the bus with ease, thriving on all the structure and rules and today was her first all school assembly ever and she was beyond words. Tomorrow is her first soccer game. It is all amazing, new and fun.

And we are all so happy for her. However, Mr. T does not start school until next week. He is also going to the same preschool where he has been for 2 years already. He has been home with us everyday not doing too much (hindsight -should have planned more exciting activities for him during first week of school) and he is a bit bored. He also has been to her amazing new school, looked at the huge library, seen the computer lab and her classroom. He has met her bus every day and listened to us excitedly ask her about activities and friends and teachers. And he is feeling very left behind and left out.

Today when she was telling us about her assembly she happened to let drop that they were having a movie night were you could bring your pillow to the gym and watch a movie. She also happened to leave out the part about it being for the whole family. At this point his head dropped to the counter and he started bawling. It was too much. And then as I reassured him that he could go as well, he looked up, with tears in his eyes, and said "I know, I was just joking" and my heart broke a little bit.

I'm not sure how to make this OK. His school IS going to be a bit boring this year. He has been there for 2 years already, and they do the same activities (with variations for ability) each year. I want to make this better for him and help him feel like he's not getting the short straw, but I don't know how. This is something that is really hard about having kids so close in age. He will be in Kindergarten next year but by then it won't be as shiny and new anymore. For now, we are going to really focus on him starting school next week and see if helps things look up a bit. And extra hugs. Always extra hugs.