Kindergarten - All Wrapped Up

School's out for summer!!  Do you think anyone around here is excited about that?  Oh yeah!  Especially me.  I'm telling you, I was so excited for the end of the school year, I felt just like a school kid myself.  No more backbacks to load.  No more lunches to pack.  No more snack packs, hot binders or homework.  Yippy!!

The last weeks of school were full of fun, games & festivities.  There was the Moving on Up production -- a celebration of surviving the trials and turmoil of Kindergarten in preparation for...well...the trials and turmoil of 1st grade.  Jake had a speaking part in the production:

"There is power in our choices,

Listen up to hear our voices."

He delivered his lines flawlessly -- thanks to all the practice sessions with Mimi & Bubba.

That was followed by field day - a morning of outdoor fun & games.  It was a bit of a drizzly day, which explains the lack of pictures.  You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that the dampness of the day didn't dampen anyone's spirits.  Jake found a new favorite game:  "ladder tennis" (aka:  ladder golf, golf toss, etc.); and he learned that he can pick up 42 marbles with his toes in 60 seconds.  Now there's a life lesson for ya!

And last, but certainly not least, there was the End of Year Party.  The entire afternoon of the last day of school was devoted to fun & games.  No cloud cover on this 100 degree day.  Just tons of sweaty fun.  It actually was a lot like field day except it took place in the afternoon, there were goody bags, and when the party was over, so was the school year.

The kids played games, had some snacks, and oh yeah...

...got tattooed!  (Yes, little sister managed to sneak into the festivities.  But boy oh boy was she unhappy to learn that she didn't get to participate in the snacking or the goody-bag-receiving.  It's so hard to be the little sister.)

Of course, no end of year party would be complete without a special gift for teacher.  The kids and I have always put together some kind of hand made something for our teachers at the end of the year.  I'd been wracking my brain for weeks to come up with something nice for Miss Lyttle.  I felt like she needed something special since this was her very first year of teaching.  In the end, I decided to get the whole class involved in the project.  Nothing too complicated...

Printing 22 kids' hands and autographs on fabric squares and then sewing them together in to a memory quilt.  Piece of cake, right?!  Actually, the minute the idea struck me I knew it was a bad one.  A great one...but a bad one.  But in the end, it all came together perfectly.  The kids were great about it.  And they did a fantastic job keeping it a secret from Miss Lyttle.

They eagerly signed their names to the outside of the package...

...and couldn't wait for Miss Lyttle to open it so they could show her their individual contributions.

Of course Jake's hand print, along with Best Buddy Andrew's, was closest to the square that read "To Miss Lyttle with Love".

She really was a great teacher, and the kids just adored her.  I hope we're as lucky with next year's teacher.  But for now, school's out for summer.  And now that we've got Kindergarten all wrapped up, let the real fun begin!!

Run for Your Life!! ~or~ Pay Up, Please

Boosterthon!  It's fun!  It's fitness!!  It's...(not) free!!!  But it comes with a bunch of really cool free junk like t-shirts, headbands, shoelaces, backpacks, footballs (yes, footballs!), etc.  Just the motivational kind of crap every mother needs laying around the house!

So, just what is Boosterthon, you ask?  Well, it's Anderson Elementary's idea of a FUNdraiser -- with the emphasis on fun.  And let me tell you, it was lots and lots of fun...except for the calling around and begging for money part, of course.  The idea is that the kid calls his friend and family and asks them to sponsor him as he runs laps around a field.  All the money goes directly to the school and is used to purchase technology products for the classroom.  Great idea, right?  Except that getting your kindergartener to make the pitch over the phone is...well...it's like trying to get a 6-year-old to do anything that requires sitting still and speaking intelligibly. We managed to muddle through that part.

Race day dawned on a beautiful morning...a bit crisp, but beautiful.  The perfect day for a race, and much better than the day before which was cold and wet.

Lila was ready to get in on the action too!  (Oh, and by the way, she'll be hitting you all up for funds in a couple of years.  So start saving!)

Music thumped and parents cheered as Kinder took the field.  All the kids were psyched up and ready to run.

Lila made sure the Rehydration Station was well stocked for all the thirsty runners.

In a sea of white Boosterthon t-shirts, Jake was easy to spot.  He was the one wearing his very serious race-day face and doing his warm-up calisthenics. 

When the whistle blew, Jake shot out of the Kinder starting blocks - determined to be the first to cross the finish line. 

Keeping track of the laps was done by parent-volunteers with strong backs.  Each child had to stop at a designated spot to get the back of their shirt marked.  It created a bit of a bottle neck, but it also gave the kiddos a chance to catch their breath since these kids only have one speed -- full-throttle.

 

Rehydration breaks also offered an opportunity to take a breather.  

Some of our more experienced 1st grade friends, like Michael, opted not to stop for water - knowing that hydration breaks eat up valuable seconds in a race. 

But race coordinators did their very best to encourage water breaks, by enlisting the assistance of pretty girls to hand out cups.

Good buddy, Christopher represented for 1st grade by crossing the finish line first.  Jake met his goal just moments after.  He was the first Kindergartener to hit the Lap Cap and finish the race.

After a quick photo-op with his oh-so-pretty teacher, Ms. Lyttle...

...he took off to encourage his best pal, Andrew finish his last couple of laps.

And for those of you who need it, here's your proof.  35 laps, run hard and fast.  Pay up!

The 1st Field Trip ~or~ My 1st Chaperone Gig

What's the best thing about school?  Field trips, of course!  We had our very first one last week.  We visited the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina, TX.  The obvious question is why would we visit a pumpkin patch the week after Halloween?  I don't know the answer, but I do know the kids didn't care.  And they didn't seem to care that it was a chilly, blustery day either.  They could barely contain themselves as they rushed for the buses.

Jake was the last one out - not because he was late.  He was the official door holder.

One advantage to being the last on the bus is you get to sit in the front!

Jake's first field trip was also a first for me -- my first experience as a chaperone.  Woo HOOO!!  Meet my motley crew:  Carlie, Jake and Arav.  The fourth kiddo in the picture is Hunter.  His mom also came along for the ride and they hung out with my group for the day - and thank goodness, because I definitely needed another set of mom-eyes to keep up with my charges.

Even this Mama Longhorn knew I was way out of my league with these crazy kids.

The first thing we did was feed the animals.  Everyone pretty much agreed it was "icky".

The animals didn't seem to mind that no one wanted to hand feed them.  They were perfectly happy to help themselves to the food.

 Next up was a hay ride around the farm.  There was plenty to see, including:

a pyramid of worried pumpkins...

an inquisitive pig...

and a fretful spider.  There were also placards placed along the trail that told the story of Farmer Rick.  Apparently, he left home one day to check on the hay harvest.  When he didn't come home for dinner, Mrs. Farmer Rick got a little concerned.  She went down to the fields to find him, but the farmhands informed her that he hadn't been around for days.  Farmer Rick was never seen again....

Poor Farmer Rick.

The kids got a real kick out of that one.

After the hay ride, it was off to the pumpkin patch.  It rained like crazy on Sunday and Monday, so the fields were a muddy mess.  And for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing the "expansive clay soil" of our parts, well...lets just say these shoes will never be the same.  Yuck!

The kids have been studying the life cycle of the pumpkin in their science unit.  One of the things they were supposed to do in the pumpkin patch was to look for the various stages in that cycle.  Jake found some seeds.

Arav found a vine with a flower.

Carlie found a green pumpkin.

Everybody got to pick an orange pumpkin to take home with them.

The last order of business was a class picture on the old farm truck.  Then it was back to the buses and back to school.  It was a fun day, but I'll admit that I was exhausted when it was all over and done with.  I lost the kids at least a dozen times.  Fortunately, the farm is pretty small and well contained.  Nothing like, say, Arlington National Cemetery where Deanne Basonic and I managed to wander away from our chaperone (aka:  my Mom) and get lost among the gardens of stone.  I won't be volunteering to chaperone that field trip.

Jake's 1st Week of School

The excitement actually started building around 4:00 PM the Friday before the official 1st day of school.  That was Meet The Teacher night.  Nervous kids & parents gathered outside locked doors at Anderson Elementary School.  They jockeyed for position in front of the library window, squinting at the 5 sheets of paper taped to it.  They were anxious to know which of the 5 kindergarten classes would be their child's class for the school year, and hoping there would be the name of at least one friend on that list as well.  But, nothing ever works smoothly for this family, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Jake's name wasn't on any of the lists.  Yep, that's right.  We hit our first snag before they even opened the doors!  That did not make me happy, and it didn't do anything to calm Jake's nerves.  As  you can imagine, by the time the doors opened, I was in full Mama Bear mode.  I marched into the front office, discontent painted all over my face.  I waited patiently for my turn to share a piece of my mind with the office staff.  And when some other mother decided she didn't have to wait her turn, well, never to be concerned about making a good 1st impression, I not-so-calmly blurted out that there were other people in line and she'd have to wait.  Oh yes, I definitely brought my A-game to Meet The Teacher night.   After the scuffle ended and some not-so-heart-felt apologies were exchanged, I learned the mix-up probably had something to do with Jake's immunization records.  So, I was off to meet Cindy Snyder, the school nurse.  She & I also went toe-to-toe before getting things sorted out.  Grrrrr!  Don't these people know how hard it is to be a 1st time Kindergarten Mom?  In the end, it all worked out, records were updated, boxes were checked, and I learned that Jake would be in Ms. Lyttle's class.  Pretty Ms. Lyttle.  Jake says she has a funny name...because Ms. Lyttle is actually quite tall, which as Jake pointed out, is NOT little.

Monday, August 23, 6:45 AM.  Rise & shine!!  Get up, get dressed, get fed, get out!  This is the new routine in our house.  6:45 is pretty early, but if we want to make it to school by 7:45, that's the way things have to be.

We're very excited to be able to ride out bikes to school every morning.  We were hoping to have a posse of neighborhood kids to join us, but so far it's just the Bond gang.

We started training for the event a couple of weeks ago so we'd know just how long it would take us to get there.  Lila's been doing really well riding the "afterburner", but she's looking forward to the day she can ride her own bike.  (I shudder to think how early we'd have to get up for that ride!)  Our ride is 1 mile long and it took us about 18 minutes on the first day.

Nerves & getting used to the new bike accounted for a longer commute time on the first day.  By the end of the week, we'd cut our time down by about 5 minutes.  Not bad.

Lila was all ready to start school, and was actually quite pissed off once it finally sunk in that she wasn't starting Kindergarten.  Jake, on the other hand, would have preferred to go back to Infinite Bounds.  He'd been acting strangely in the weeks leading up to the big day.  Quiet, irritable, sassy, mean...things that Jake usually isn't.  I knew he was a little sad to be leaving his friends at IB, but it wasn't until he nearly lost his breakfast that I realized how nervous he actually was about the whole thing.

But he put on his best fake smile, and walked into the Kindergarten Pod.  "The Pod".  Who decided to call it "The Pod"?  Sending my boy into The Pod sounds just a little scary...like I'm sending him into a shuttle craft that's waiting to whisk my kid away to the mother ship where aliens will poke and prod him, suck his brains out, reprogram him and return him to me as some kind of inter-galactic weapon.  The Pod.  Couldn't they just call it The Hall or The Wing?  Seriously?  The Pod?

They put a big red K over the door.  I guess that's supposed to make us parents feel better about abandoning our kiddos at the doors to The Pod.  Parents aren't allowed in The Pod.  They say dropping your kids off at the doors promotes independence and a sense of empowerment, but I know they just don't want us to see all the extraterrestrial goings-on beyond those doors.

I did manage to sneak in and take a peek.  There was pretty, not-so-little Ms. Lyttle...and Jake, still looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

Then it was off to the cafeteria for Good Morning Anderson!  GMA takes place every Monday & Friday. 

The kids file in and find a place to sit on the floor.  They go over the school motto:  Believe, Achieve, Succeed!  They state their attendance goal:  On time, every day, every day, on time!  They pledge allegiance to the US Flag  - yes, we can still do that here in Lone Star State, and yes, the 'one nation under God' part is still in there.  Then they pledge allegiance to the Texas flag:  "I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible".  Those sneaky Texans - you might be able to get prayer out of the schools, but you ain't gonna get God outta Texas public schools! And speaking of prayer, since it's only acceptable to pray before rodeos & football games these days, GMA observes a moment of silence instead.

They also sing songs, recognize birthdays, celebrate the Firecrackers of the Week (more about that some other time.)  It really is quite a production, and pretty overwhelming at first.  When I spotted Jake, he looked pretty comfortable and relaxed.  Once it's over, everyone is dismissed to their classes and the day begins.

The day begins at 7:45, the day ends at 3:00.  A long day for a little kid if you ask me.  But Jake did just fine. School is dismissed in stages.  The first kids released are those going on to after-care programs.  Then the "car riders" are release.  Then the "walkers/bike riders" emerge from The Pod.  Jake was the doorman on the first day, and seemed pleased with that status.  The kids all line up and sit down on the grass just outside the pod doors.  When they see their parent/guardian, they raise their hand to let the teachers know, they they're released.  Fortunately, the process doesn't take too long.  It was 107 degrees at release time on the first day of school.  That's hot even for us Texans.  As soon as we were released, we headed to the pool with a bunch of friends for a little after-school swim party.  It was so hot, even the pool water wasn't all that refreshing. But it was fun hanging out with friends and rinsing off the stress of the first day.

The rest of the week went very smoothly.  We rode our bikes every day except Wednesday (it was raining).  Jake's learning the names of his classmates and making friends.  And if you ask him what the best part of the week was, he'd probably tell you playing on the playground and finding two silly bands on the floor in the hall.  Infinite Bounds is a tough act to follow, but I think he's settling in pretty well.