Friends

Karinna became pretty good friends with several students last year in kindergarten. Those friendships carried over this year into first grade. She's shown here next to William (center), and Matthew, both of whom were assigned to the same first grade class with her. (Note the boys' school spirit in wearing the BIES logo shirts.) Unfortunately, William's family decided to move to Los Altos several weeks ago. The news was tough for Karinna as she has never before experienced a friend moving away. Also, change has always been a challenge for her. To help ease the transition, all the moms organized a good-bye party at a local park.

I think Karinna assumed William's moving away signaled an abrupt end to their friendship. This did not occur to me at first. Being a Southern California transplant, maintaining remote friendships is something I simply take for granted. I guess my little girl is just starting to learn about this. In the past few weeks, Karinna's discovered what it's like to keep up with school friends she no longer sees in class everyday. She and William have been exchanging email. Karinna expressed initial concern about William's adjustment to his new school. I think it was good for her to learn that William has weathered the move just fine. Meanwhile, she's been updating him on the latest with her class, their mutual friends and former teachers. In the process, she seems to have learned something new about friendships -- even though friends sometimes transition out of our everyday lives, it is possible to keep up with them. It takes effort though.

Jeremy has also been learning about friendships with his pre-school classmates. Shown here with his good friend, Johanna, Jeremy has also made some good friends at his pre-school -- Spencer and Eric. Teresa and I have never met them, but Jeremy speaks very favorably about them. Supposedly they often play this game called "Spaceships and Aliens." Despite my asking on several occassions, it's not clear to me what role Jeremy plays in this game. In general, Jeremy enjoys clowning around with his friends (check out this post showing Jeremy being a goof-ball with his good buddy Colin). Also, is it just me, or does the picture above seem to imply Jeremy just did something mischievous to Johanna?