Rocco's Pre-K.indergarten Graduation

 

Rocco graduated from pre-kindergarten today.

I can't believe my baby boy is going to be a kindergartener in the fall!

His school held a super-cute graduation ceremony. They put together a nice slideshow of all the kids, they sang songs, they were all dressed in little gowns and caps, and cake was served afterwards.

Rocco had a great experience at his school. He went to school 3 days a week from 9am-4 or 5pm. He loved it and had made a number of friends. There were maybe 4 or 5 little guys that he talked about often - so we know he was maturing in that he was able to develop true friendships... not just parallel play anymore. This seems to happen later for little boys than girls (based on our own experience, of course). He gravitated toward one friend more than the others, so we had that little boy, Ian, over to play at our house once, and Rocco also played at his house once too.

I really liked Rocco's teachers. I loved the school. I liked that they provided so many opportunities to learn and practice writing and numbers and science projects, etc. But, they always made it FUN. Rocco frequently came home with worksheets completed, and sometimes an art project or two. It was obvious art was not a serious area of interest for him though! ha!

We also learned that Rocco was a good friend to his classmates. We received an email from a parent of one of his classmates. This mother told us that her daughter would often get teased by one of the little boys in the class. And, she proceeded to tell us how Rocco would stick up for her little girl, Mary, and that he would deflect the other little boy so he would leave Mary alone. This mother seemed so thankful for Rocco's kindness... and Mary clearly thought Rocco was a champ. I was SO PROUD when I read this email from Mary's mother. I knew we were raising a kind, sweet, little boy... but this just reinforced it. I told Rocco all about it and how proud we are of him and the young man he is becoming. He was clearly very proud and talked about this for days.

All in all... I think our little guy is ready for k.indergarten.

And of coure, with each life milestone like this... I can't help but feel a strong pain in my chest and a heavy heart. Matteo should be here too. He should have had this pre-K experience. He should be going to k.indergarten too. The pain just never goes away.