February.

One of the many things I love about kindergarten is the way our year ebbs and flows from holiday to holiday. The excitement of Halloween runs into Thanksgiving, then slides into Christmas, takes a turn at Martin Luther King Day, and then we take a long layover at Valentine's Day (before heading straight for St. Patrick’s Day).

Valentine’s Day has to be one of the favorites for five-year-olds. At first, I didn’t understand why… after all, kindergartners haven’t quite discovered romantic love yet… then this year I finally figured it out. My sprouts just exude love.

How did I figure it out? Well, when they realized the calendar was turning over from January to February, the love began. Talk of Valentine’s (or ‘Falentime’s’ as many of them call it) began. David, always the charmer, walked right up to me and asked me to be his Valentine. David has no problem telling me he loves me (daily as a matter of a fact) and so asking me to be his Valentine just came naturally.

Darlene, a little more quiet with her affections, handed me a folded piece of paper. When I opened it, here’s what I saw:

Really? Come on now. February fourteenth can’t arrive soon enough for me. I love February. We get to celebrate the caring and loving nature that’s in our classroom all year long… and a grown man can never have enough Hannah Montana and Star Wars paper Valentines. As I tell them every year, I’m a sucker for the homemade ones… they get me every time.