Growing Up

So my grandson Josh started kindergarten last week.   My wife and I have been "baby-sitting" him two days a week since he was a few months old; the other 3 days he attended preschool near his parents' work.  I put "baby-sitting" in quotes because I truly question how much monitoring I've done in the past 5 1/2 years.  More likely, I was learning from him as he discovered the world and observed the strange ways lots of things work.  The transition to kindergarten has been surprisingly hard; for me, not Joshua.

I have lost my favorite playmate and I never saw it coming.   He and I have seen  17 movies in the past year, and perhaps as many as 30 in the past 2 1/2 years.  We both love popcorn and lemonade and movies.  Other activities have included biweekly library visits (where we played chess or checkers on giant boards), building stuff with Legos, miniature golf, attending kid plays, and climbing trees.  Now I'm faced with baby-sitting Joshua's brother twice a week and he's actually a baby (4 months old or thereabouts).  I'm starting all over again.

Anyway, the point of this post is to speculate how Joshua will deal with school demands.  We've speculated that he will do fine, but I've wondered if he will break his teacher by Columbus Day; he can be a very strong-willed fellow.   

I think we got a hint last Friday.  He came home from 3 half-days of school (full days began today) and asked his mother "Mom, will school get harder?"  Before she could respond, Joshua followed up with "'Cause so far it's been arts and crafts..."  That preschool is a tough act to follow.

And I'm going to miss my playmate.