Start of School 'Bittersweet' for Parents of Kindergarteners

For children, the first day of kindergarten is an exciting, brand-new, often scary rite of passage. Their parents outfit them the best they can with every piece of armor five-year-olds can have—from the Buzz Lightyear backpacks to the Disney Princess lunchboxes, the pencils with feathery tops to the crayons that smell like blueberries when you color with them.

Yet when they watch their child walk through the doors of their brand new school, many parents still are nervous. Will their pint-size student do well at beginning addition? Who will play with her on the playground? Is he going to remember to be polite to his teacher?

"I was expecting a lot of crying this morning," Lyndon Grey said, in reference to his wife, not his daughter. At Angela Grey's protests that she'd done well, he wryly said, "Well we haven't gotten home yet."

Angela said getting their daughter started at Terra Centre was actually easy.

"What was hard was she was afraid and wanted me to stay," Angela said. "You've got the principal standing there giving directions—everyone's very helpful."

Cameron Selfridge has gone through this before with his oldest son in fifth grade, but it didn't make dropping off his son and daughter to kindergarten any easier.

"This is kinda bittersweet," Selfridge said. "We don't have any more around the house."

He consoled himself with his children's happiness.

"They all had smiles on their faces," Selfridge said.

Parents of kindergarteners at Terra Centre seemed satisfied they were leaving their sons and daughters in good hands.

"They all seem to care very much," Angela said, adding that all the teachers she has spoken to were enthusiastic about getting volunteers and parent visitors.