Our family read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten a few weeks before the end of the year, and I became teary as we turned the pages. We read about the field trips and activities of a fictional class and it spurred Max to recollect his favorite things about his own kindergarten class. It also sent Mommy into a heart-clenching, choked-up, teary-eyed fit of nostalgia about my oldest child completing his first year of "real" school. And just who was this lanky boy lying on the bed next to me? He has the same sweet grin and desire for cuddling as my Max, but this child was now the one reading the book to me!
That night was also time for me to reflect on the past year and some of the important lessons I have learned. The most important lesson being that I may be able to organize Max's room still, but I can no longer organize his life. When we first received Max's teacher assignment last summer, I was inexplicably disappointed that he had not been placed in the classroom I wanted, the one with the most experienced teacher and the assistant who was a family friend. Would someone as pretty and perky as a Disney princess be able to discipline a class? Would he learn enough with such a young teacher? Thankfully, now I can say I was completely wrong. Not only was his teacher an excellent educator, but I was continually impressed with her classroom management and the creativity and enthusiasm she brought to teaching. The experience emphasized that I might not always know what is best (gasp!) and that Max will have to learn to deal with lots of different kinds of teachers (good and bad), just like we have to deal with many different types of personalities as adults. Fortunately, he is very charming and teachers adore him!
Max's class was a great blend of children. He played mostly with the boys, but it seemed like every child found a good friend or group of friends within the class. Max had two "best friends", which occasionally led to hurt feelings when they had to pair off, but was usually a sweet experience. There was no one in the class whom he spoke of in a disparaging manner and he was always gleeful to see his classmates. The teachers reported that Max got along well with everyone and he would try to help other students who were having difficulty or appeared upset. They believed he could be put with any combination of students and be perfectly happy!
Max wrote and illustrated a book about Kindergarten. (For your information: the teachers encourage students to spell words without help. Even though I understand this from an educational viewpoint, it drives me nuts so I have corrected the spelling!)
"My favorite classroom activity was Legos because I like building legos! I also like playing with them. Every day when I get home I play with legos. I like to build trains." Although it clearly says "classroom activity", I don't think Max really understood the directions since I'm fairly certain they don't play with legos at school. Bless him, he was just getting warmed up.
"My favorite special (related arts) activity was library because Ms. Conroy let us check out books. She also read fun books to us. My favorite book was Knuffle Bunny." Be still my heart, library is his favorite!! Did I mention he was in the highest level reading group all year? He is definitely my child.
"I really liked my field trip to Happy Cow because I liked playing games! I also liked watching the bees. It was also fun to color. It was fun to have lunch at Happy Cow!"
"What I really want to learn in first grade is math quizzes. On math quizzes I hope to do very well. I also hope to get a good report. I hope to get 100 percent!" Say what? Math quizzes? Maybe he is Mimi's child.
The class celebrated the end of the year with a trip to a stable for horseback riding and an ice cream sundae party at school.
One more celebration! Milkshakes at Pickwick with Kyle and Catharine, two of his oldest friends.
Future kindergartners get to go too!
(Boys on one side, girls on the other)
Last Day of Kindergarten
First Day/Last Day
On to First Grade!
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