January 15, 2021
Reunited and it feels so good! I know I speak for all of us when I say that we are thrilled to be back in the building with our preschool friends. It was a short week, but I promise that each class had fun – loud fun. Up and down the hallways I heard so many, “I love you’s”, “I missed you’s” – and these were said between the kids! It’s pretty awesome to be a part of a loving environment that the kids are nurturing themselves.
Next week, registration opens for our current families who will be attending Soapstone in the fall. I write this to you today, January 14, on my son’s (my baby!) birthday. Luke turns 5 today, and there is something about 5 and my youngest that is making me feel nostalgic. I also realized today that it is the first time in 5 years that I have not registered one of my children at Soapstone Preschool. Luke goes to Kindergarten in the fall and my family ends this era at the preschool. I’m feeling all the feelings today and when I think about Soapstone Preschool without my kids, it’s super weird and sad. I remember very clearly 5 years ago, when I was 9 months pregnant and my husband and I were dragging our 2-year old around to different preschools to tour, once I realized that JANUARY WAS THE MONTH OF PRESCHOOL REGISTRATION. When was this decided? I thought preschools were handled in such a courteous way – you know, a nice and easy “May registration” way. I became obsessed and panicked by the idea that I would be at Rex delivering my son, all the while too focused on the preschool spots I was losing rather than my newborn, all due to my poor planning and timing. I can laugh about this now – in so many different ways – but at the time, it was nuts. Also – at the end of the day, Soapstone Preschool was the only choice for our family for the same reasons you all chose Soapstone. The season of registration feels like a season of change each year. It makes us think about the year ahead (9 months ahead, by the way) and it makes us wistful for the fact that each time we register for the next year, our babies are getting older and we are all one step closer to Kindergarten, one step closer to middle school…high school..driving….college…and before you know it, the kids are already out of the house and where has the time gone?
I say to myself and to you…slow your roll. Take a breath. Relax. I feel sad because Luke won’t be here with me anymore at the preschool. But I am excited for the opportunities that lay ahead for him in elementary school, and all the things he will explore and see. I’m sad because he won’t be nestled into our very loving, very nurturing sheltered sweet preschool, with the best teachers who I trust with my most treasured possessions in the whole world. But I’m excited for him to be in the same school as his big sister, who he adores, and for her to have more opportunities to protect and watch out for her little brother – something she has perfected this year as we’ve been quarantined at home. I’m sad because it’s the end of an era for Team Slessman at Soapstone Preschool. But I’m excited that it’s the start of a new one – with my children tucked away in elementary school to learn who they are as individuals, and a chance for me to find my way at the preschool without the identities of my children.
God gives us these seasons of change and reminds us that in the scariness of it all, blessings and opportunities lie await. They wait in the wide open, they wait in the shadows, but God presents them to us in the ways in which we need them most and in the time we need them most. I hope you find God’s reassurance during this season of change – to all my fellow parents out there who are also not completing a registration packet for Soapstone to all my parents out there who are faced with the wistfulness of another year gone, but another year to enjoy at the preschool. There are joys just waiting to be found and adventures to be found. God will show us the way in this season of change.
Solidarity, rising Kindergarten parents!