1983

When I think back to when I was five, I consider it to have been a pretty easy, carefree time. I watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I climbed trees and played school with friends in my clubhouse. The most vivid memories of kindergarten I have are playing with the kitchen set in the classroom, sitting on little square pieces of carpet for story time, and stealing a magic wand from the little girl I carpooled with (which made for a few uncomfortable weeks back and forth to school everyday after getting caught...) 
I know we did a lot more during my 181 days in school, but the only things I can tell you that I actually remember learning are my address, phone number, and writing the letters in my first and last name. Luckily, my mom kept a journal while I was growing up (which I do now for the girls and find it to be such a useful tool and know they will too when they have little ones) and she kept track of what I accomplished each year in school. At the end of my kindergarten year, she (who was an elementary teacher herself and knew the ropes) wrote that she was so proud that I came out knowing the facts I listed above and had word recognition of 8-10 sight words.  That was obviously a long time ago.
Fast forward 30 years..(which is crazy in itself to think it has been 30 years since I was 5, considering there are days that I feel like I am still 18...and then of course there are some that I feel like I am 89...)  it's 2013 and Bug is over halfway done with her year in kindergarten. At the beginning of the year, she was given a list of sight words that she was to be able to recognize by the end of the year. Needless to say, there were more than ten...ten times that to be exact. They are reading 10-15 page books. They have weekly sentence homework that requires them to not only compose the letters correctly, but also correct the capitalization, punctuation, and spelling errors. One night while she was working on her sentences, TOH put it perfectly...'When I was in kindergarten I'm pretty sure I was learning how to cut out a circle?!'
I'm sure this is how it goes with every new generation and I am just really showing my age with all of this, but I cannot get over how much different the life of a little one is now. While everyone out there is working so hard on new gadgets to try and make life 'easier' on everyone, I feel like it is only getting harder on these little guys. They have so much competition and so many standards to try and live up to and I feel that a lot of times we forget that they are still these sweet little beings that want to play hide-n-seek, dig in the dirt, and have tea parties. We are really trying our best to keep it as simple as possible for them, to keep them as innocent and worry-free as they are, and allow them to enjoy and embrace this short, fabulous childhood as much as they can...because those first five years go by at lightening speed, and before you know it, they are reading, forming circles of their own friends, and becoming responsible little people right before your eyes no matter how badly you want to turn back time...