I tried to get him in head start but they said he was too smart and they couldn't teach him anything he didn't already know. When he was about six and a half I thought of sticking him in Kindergarten but then I had to make a trip to New York so I took him with me. I knew his father couldn't handle his job and take Tommy back and forth to school.
So he was seven when he started, unless I messed up in my memories. Kindergarten was a breeze, he knew, his letters, numbers, simple math and could even read some books. What he didn't have was skills with getting along with other kids his age. He'd always been around adults or at least people who were chronologically adults.
I used to think maybe I would have been a friendly person if I'd gone to Kindergarten but there wasn't one where I started school. I was asked to be a room mother and I was for years and helped out with other projects. I knew the time would come when I couldn't do that anymore because kids don't like having a parent in school with them.
Tom didn't often help out at school but there was one occasion when they asked for parents to help fix up the school yard and he did do that. He also built the kindergarten teacher a huge sand box like the one he built for Tommy.
Sometimes old Tom would walk along to school with him or stop by when I was there to walk home with him. I took these photos on that day.
