Tomorrow's the big day!

My kids at school come back tomorrow! I can't wait! I am looking forward to seeing all of them. It seems like it has been so long since I have taught a lesson! But, yet the months have flown by. I will have all grade levels tomorrow except kindergarten. Those babies have an orientation, then I will get them on Thursday. I can't wait to have a fresh new set of kindergartner's to meet and teach. They are always so anxious and amazed to be in my classroom. To them, everything is new and exciting!

In honor of the new school year I'll post one of my favorite pieces of literature regarding Kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.