Last night I attended an information session for first grade at the International School of Boston. The director of pre-school ended the session by joking (sort of) that he knew that the kindergartners were ready for first grade, but that he and the teachers had wanted to help the parents be ready.

Truthfully, we’re not ready. We look at Charlotte and she’s still our tiny little baby. Okay, she reads, writes, tells (bad) jokes, plays complex board games, and is a charming companion. But she’s our baby.

Charlotte, however, is ready. How do I know? This morning she told me that she had a field trip with her class today to a mill. They’ve been studying wheat, so going to see it ground into flour would be a good next step, right?

I said, “No, I don’t think so, sweetie. I don’t remember an email.”

She didn’t argue or anything. “Okay.”

We headed to school where I ran into one our class mothers. She said, “I’m going with the children today.” I said, “Where? Is there a field trip?” “Yes,” she said, “to the mill.”

Charlotte’s grin required me to put on my sunglasses.

I quickly remembered the email we received earlier in the month about field trips. I said to Charlotte, “Sweetie, at the mill there are no bathrooms. You’ll have to squat in the woods.”

She said, “I know, Mommy. Isabelle told us.”

“Oh, okay. Oh no. I didn’t pack you a lunch.” [Charlotte has hot lunch at school on Wednesdays.]

“Mommy, I have hot lunch today. Isabelle will have my lunch. She told us that she’d have lunches for anyone who gets hot lunch today.”

Apparently, Charlotte is an excellent listener at school And though I hadn’t put the field trip on the calendar and didn’t receive the reminder email from school, she was well-prepared.

If only Charlotte had told me last night, I wouldn’t have felt like such a dope!

She’s totally ready for first grade. I, however, may need to repeat kindergarten!