Before immersing Cooper into a full time, structured school day, we decided to test the waters a bit the summer before kindergarten. Capitalizing on his love for animals, we enrolled him in a two week all day, pack your lunch-- zoo camp.
We purchased a brand new backpack and waterbottle, loaded him up with sunscreen, his favorite cookies, and good luck hugs. Dispelled thoughts of him wandering into the tiger compound, sent up a prayer of protection, took a deep breath and said goodbye to a very hesitant little boy.
The first week, we received a phone call from his counselors almost every day. Cooper waited too long to go the the bathroom. Cooper was (uncharacteristically) fighting with another child. Cooper wandered off from the group. Often at pickup, we'd find him hiding behind the blackboard in his classroom. The rest of the kids, were engaged in puzzles and crafts. Cooper was just two lonely little sneakers in the corner of the room. We were a little exasperated. Perhaps this was too much for Cooper. Perhaps the zoo staff needed to be better at engaging all children. It was a tough week.
And then the second week of zoo camp happened. Now when we picked Cooper up, we had to pry him off his counselors as he hugged them goodbye. And they fell in love with him. He chatted happily about the things he had seen and done and learned about. He participated in the the zoo camp show--on a stage with actual lines to say. He won the "Most Creative" award for an eagle costume I continue to preserve to this day. This award, by the way, followed and continues to follow Cooper through his life.
The "second week of zoo camp" entered our family lexicon as a metaphor for handling the inevitable new situations encountered by our oldest child. It reminded us to give Cooper the gift of time as he adjusted to new things without succumbing to parental "freak out". Let him blossom in his own time. Just wait for the second week of zoo camp, we'd say, and often the metaphor held.
And so we breathed a sigh of relief and felt we were as ready as we would ever be for kindergarten.
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