It ended as it began — parents waiting at the school bus stop.

But this last day of school was a little more relaxed than the first day, where more than two dozen parents and grandparents waited with their nervous and excited children.

When Rachel Scharf and her sister, Rebekah, and their West Seneca West Elementary School mates got off the bus Wednesday, their parents squirted them with silly string, courtesy of one of the neighborhood moms. Another one brought popsicles for the children.

It was a celebration of a job well done, and the start of a hard-earned vacation.

Peter J. Scharf Jr. said it seems like yesterday that he was anticipating his youngest daughter going to school.

“I can’t believe it. It went so fast,” he said.

It was a year in which Rachel turned 6. She learned how to read and say “yellow” instead of “lellow.” She had 10 inches cut from her hair. She learned how to find her bus in the parking lot and how to open her locker.

And when she and her classmates walked down the hall from music class Wednesday, none of these kindergartners was upset when sixth-graders walked in front of them, disrupting the line.

Rachel's Kindergarten Year Ends

Rachel is the youngest of two children. Her sister, Rebekah, just finished fourth grade. Their father is an examiner for the Erie County Social Services Department, and their mother, Amy, is a stay-at-home mom.

The Scharfs wonderered for months how Rachel, who did not attend preschool, would react to her first year in school.

“This is the first separation away from Mommy. That’s huge in a child’s life,” Peter Scharf said. “She went straight from Mommy’s house, our house, to school—and she handled it awesome, I thought.”

Along the way, she made friends in her class — 25 children attended her birthday party earlier this year.

“It was kind of neat to see her come home and talk about all the girls,” her father said. “She had peers all of a sudden.”

The class took field trips to a fire company, library, a play and the zoo. They marked 100 days of school with a special celebration of the penny. They played hard outside and inside the school on Field Day a week ago, and they received certificates of completion from their teacher. No longer known as Wild Cubs at the school, they will enter first grade in the fall as Wild Cats.

Rachel was more shy than Rebekah, 10, and she was very active when at home. So the Scharfs would not have been too surprised if Rachel had some adjustment issues.

“She went to school, she paid attention, she took the respect that we taught her, that we’re teaching her . . . she took that to school with her,” Peter Scharf said.

Because it was her first assessment by a teacher, her parents eagerly awaited the first report card.

“We didn’t know what to expect, because we know what she’s like at home,” Amy Scharf said. “We were very pleasantly surprised.”

Still, there are times when 6- year-olds will act like, well, 6- year-olds. And on those occasions that she was disciplined at home, she developed a new way to apologize.

“If she makes a mistake and I have to discipline her, maybe an hour later I’ll get a little note, ‘Dear Daddy, I am sorry for what I did.’ She writes notes now to me,” Scharf said. “She’s putting her thoughts into words now.”

The Scharfs now are double kindergarten veterans, and they have some advice for first-timers.

“Prepare yourself. It’s a whole lot different now than it was 30 years ago when I was in kindergarten,” Amy Scharf said. “They’re going to have homework. Be prepared. They’re going to have homework. Yes it’s easy, and it could take 15 to 20 minutes at most.”

She said while walking to the bus stop recently, Rachel said, “Next year I’m going to have more homework to do.”

“Yes honey, unfortunately every year as it goes you’re going to have a lot more homework to do,” her mother told her. “But you know what, it will be done, it will be fine.”

Another thing Amy Scharf has learned: “The further they get in school, the less you know about the math to help them.”

And Peter Scharf has these words for parents of new kindergartners: “Join the PTA, go on field trips with the child, do whatever you have to do,” he said. “Let the child know from their first year of school, they know in their heart mom and dad are going to be involved.”