Safety Day

I had such a hard time deciding what to title this post... I think you'll see why in a minute. Michael came home from school today and told me that he'd had "Safety Day" at school, which mainly consisted of practicing drills. When I grew up, we practiced fire drills and tornado drills. Michael had both of those, plus two more: blow up drills and lock down drills. I am not certain if the name on the first one is the technical one, but it consists of going outside and hunkering down behind the school buses for cover, so my guess is that it's accurate. And then the lock down drill, which means that Mrs. Roman locks all the doors to the class until they have the all clear. It's one thing to read about Columbine and the so many schools which have sadly shared its legacy, but to find out that your five year old is preparing for just such a day is like a punch in the gut. Thankfully he is not asking me why he has the drills; it's sad to know that he will grow up with that being a fact of life. I probably feel the same as all the parents did who found out their children were doing bomb drills at school during the Cold War. So sad that today, the enemy is hidden within instead of crouched behind an Iron Curtain.

Other than that wake up call for me, Michael's first week seemed to go well. Mrs. Roman said that she would not have guessed that he'd never been in preschool--I take that as a compliment, anyway. He behaves well and does his work as asked and, of course, loves to spend time in the book corner. Hopefully soon he will be reading the books in the book corner! Andy and I would both like to have lunch with him occasionally--startling to discover that he is eating lunch at 10:45. No wonder he's been ravenous when he gets home from school!