Pomp & Circumstance

Today was Anna's preschool graduation.  Yes, it is a fact that Anna hasn't attended preschool since the end of April.  And it is also a fact that I think graduations for preschoolers are a little silly, and mainly just opportunities for parents to take more pictures of their kids.  So why were we there?  Here's why.

Back in May we took Anna to a meet and greet at her elementary school, where she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  Afterwards we were back at the house and out of the blue she asked me, "When am I going to graduate?"  I thought she meant her high school graduation, so I started talking about how that was far in the future, and I got interrupted with a "No, no, no, no, Mommy.  From preschool!  Like Carter and Jameson did last year!"  Carter and Jameson are two of Anna's preschool friends who are a year older than she is.  And when I told her that she was already done with preschool, she got kind of upset.  So a few minutes later I was on the phone with the preschool director, asking if Anna could come back for graduation (and worried that it might have already happened).

As it turned out, they weren't doing their preschool graduation until June.  So this week I took Anna back to preschool twice for graduation practice, where she learned the songs and practiced lining up and walking in.  And today was her graduation.

In the end I'm glad we did it.  She got to see her little preschool friends again, got a graduation dog that her classmates signed, and now she feels like she's crossed the last hurdle before Kindergarten.  But I still think that all of that pomp and circumstance for four and five year olds is a little much :)