Carl Jones Jr.'s First Day of Kindergarten

For once, they were going to be on time.

Christina Lucara and her son, Carl Jones Jr., had been up since 6:40 a.m., eager to get to for Carl’s first day of kindergarten.

“I think you need to calm down,” Lucara warned as Carl ran around the room, too excited to sit still. She spread peanut butter over a piece of wheat bread and slapped another piece on top.

“He used to like these with honey, but not anymore," she said.

Carl finally sat on the couch, entranced by the Disney Channel characters singing about the days of the week.

“I guess I should make myself a lunch, too,” Lucara said.

Lucara, who works for the American Society of Breast Surgeons, was finally sending her only child off to school. It was bittersweet, but she had traded in a townhouse with three floors in Prince George's County for a small two-bedroom apartment in Columbia in February just to have Carl attend one of the area’s prestigious schools.

“My sister raised her daughter out here and just loved it,” she said. “I’ve just heard great reviews about the schools. “

Swansfield boasts a Healthy Howard award, is a Green School and is a PBIS Gold Recognized school, which signifies positive learning and behavior.

Independent behavior is what Lucara hopes Carl will learn.

“I tend to baby him because he’s my only child,” she said. “He was in pre-K though, so he’s gotten a leg up on what it will be like. They’re not going to tie your shoes for you, though. I got him some new Velcro shoes so he wouldn’t feel so helpless.”

This morning Carl wore a red t-shirt and shorts with his new shoes, but something was missing.

Suddenly disengaged from Mickey Mouse, he went to pick out the perfect accessory: a tie.

“He wanted to wear his tie today,” Lucara explained, popping a frozen waffle into the oven. “His dad is a restaurant manager so he wears ties and cuff links all the time.”

“I don’t have cuff links yet,” Carl piped up.

When breakfast was ready, Carl sat down to his waffles while Lucara fiddled with his new backpack and school supplies.

“I didn’t know that the school supplies are communal supplies, so I couldn’t buy him the Transformers folders because he would be sharing,” she said. She put Carl’s Spongebob lunchbox into a matching Spongebob backpack along with a brown paper bag labeled “Carl Jones snack” and emblazoned with a crayon-drawing.

 “This is your snack so you take this out at 10:30,” Lucara said.

“I might not remember that,” Carl replied, mouth full of waffle.

“Well that’s why it says ‘Carl Jones snack.’”

When breakfast is finished and teeth are brushed, Carl slapped on a stick-on nametag reading “Kindergartner coming through! Miss Holden’s Class.”

“Daddy’s here,” she called as she heard her phone. “We’ve never been ready this early!”

The school was abuzz with new students. Teachers and staff in powder blue polos waved cars in different directions and ushered families into the atrium after the 8 a.m. bell.

The three found their way to a brightly lit classroom. A sign on the chalkboard told the kindergartners that to be ready they needed to have their ears listening, lips closed, hands folded and feet still. But that was not about happen just yet.

“Hi Carl!” Miss Lauren Holden greeted him amid the chaos of children. “Why don’t you go find your hook?”

Carl hung up his backpack while Lucara put the school supplies bag into bins laid out on a shelf.

Miss Holden dashed about the room greeting each child and parents, snapping pictures of the kids in their very first classroom, signaling the start to 16 years of academic life.

“It’s a boat, look!” Carl yelled over to his parents, pointing to an object made of flat blocks on the table.  

But before too long it was time for school to begin.

“He’s a big kid now,“ Carl Jones Sr. said. “He’s independent now.”

As the couple walked back to the car after dropping Carl Jr. off, Lucara remarked how she felt better today than at kindergarten orientation last week.

“That wasn’t as bad as the other day,” she said. “But I baby him. That’s why he has a mommy and a daddy: His daddy to be tough and his mommy to be emotional.”