Bus Ride

This over protective mother finally let her little girl ride the bus home from school. No these pictures are not from the beginning of school, you can tell by the snow in the background. Skylar has waited for the day that mommy would let her take the hour long bus ride home. Yes, that is an hour for preschoolers.

My opinion, which is not shared by many, is that even 4 year old girls learn more on the bus than you are comfortable with them learning. Songs like 'I Kissed a Girl and Liked It' boyfriend/girlfriend stuff, and who knows what else. Don't get me wrong, I know that I can not shield her from everything but subjecting her to that for an hour with little adult input is not my thing. Of all the bus drivers, I do feel comfortable with her driver, Miss Colleen. She seems to do well monitoring the behavior of the kids and she understands what is appropriate for children and what is not. But we do not always know if her driver will be driving on any given day.

I had prepared Skylar for the potential that I was going to allow her to go and gave her a magnetic drawing board and dog to play with on the bus. Then told her teacher that depending on how my shopping was going, that I would call and send her on the bus. I cruised around Walmart with my hour and a half, putting pictures into the one hour photo, grabbing gifts and headed to check out. I prayerfully accepted that it would make more sense to call the school and send her on the bus. So I called. Hey, an hour leway.

Skylar got off the bus with a smile. I asked her where her gloves were, thinking she would not remember them if they were on the seat next to her. But she confidently told me, "In my backpack, mommy." Good Job. Then as the bus pulled away, "My dog! It's on the bus." Now don't tell me I don't know my daughter. We ran to the end of the road and caught the driver as she made the round, got the dog and headed back home. Maybe we'll do it again some day but I enjoy that 45 minutes with Skylar to catch up on her day. We each share three things that we did when we were away from eachother. The car ride home is a great time for that before the daycare girls arrive. I think I'll keep that time.