Jack finished up school the 3rd week in May. Overall he had a great kindergarten year. If asked, his most common response was that kindergarten was "boring," so I had to constantly remind him that though they are reviewing things he already knows (letters, basic addition, etc) he also learned about several new things (holidays around the world, for example).
We really liked his teacher, Mrs. Rohret, and didn't have any complaints. The most important thing Jack did this year (in my opinion) was improve his handwriting. He has VERY nice printing now, and we definitely credit Mrs. Rohret for that!
Jack made some new friends, including a few girls who "liked" him. Who knew this flirting started so young?!? Jack was embarrassed any time I brought the girls up, so we didn't talk a ton about it. He loved being in class with his best neighbor buddy, Jack, but the two of them started to get a little silly as the year went on. His mom, Kim, and I agreed that the chances of them being in class together again was unlikely so we started warning them early on of that possibility.
The last week of school there was a school-wide awards ceremony. Only 5th grade parents are invited, so we weren't there, but my teacher friend did capture photos/videos of our big guy winning an award. He received the Golden Apple Award. Each teacher gets to pick one student to give his/her award to for the reason of his/her choice. Jack's teacher gave him the award for "his eagerness to stretch his mind and always learn new things." We are so proud of our big guy!! He thought it was awesome that he got the very first award of the whole ceremony!
On the last day of school, I took 1/2 day and volunteered at Jack's Field Day. It was a beautiful day, which was great since most events were outside. Unfortunately I got stuck in the gym at the parachute station, but it was still fun. After all 5 kindergarten classes came through, I sneaked outside to watch for a little while before I headed into work.
Here are some of my favorite writings/artwork that came home with Jack at the end of the school year.
April was a fun month for us. The weather finally got nice so we spent some time outside, which we always enjoy.
Jack's school had a Bingo Night one Friday night. It was actually the night of Nora's kidney testing, so she and I left a little early. We went with the Knichels, Ashers and Lades and the kids had so much fun. We can't wait for next year's event!
Mia & Jack made it to the front of the room in the 'Heads or Tails' game, but didn't win
Another fun school event happened in April: there was a book fair and art fair. We got a letter home the day before saying that Jack was winning an art award, so of course we attended. Turns out our boy got 2nd place from all the kindergartners for a fish he made. So proud of him! He was pretty proud of himself too - he practically ran up there when they called his name. Love it! Lily won an award too - she got 1st place for the 1st graders.
The choir performed at the art awards (Mia is in the pink shirt in front)
Jack and Lily watching the choir (and participating in the actions)
Receiving his award!!
The boys have been begging forever to go play up at the skate park at the nearby park. There are always bigger kids there, so I've been a little weary of taking them. One Sunday morning though, we got up early and headed over there. The boys brought their scooters and thought they were hot stuff! It was fun. A few bigger guys were there, but they were nice and didn't seem too annoyed with the 6- and 4-year olds who were on their turf.
Nora snoozed for part of the time
Then she woke up and smiled
In April we also had a long, long overdue play date with my college friends and their kids. We met at Chesterfield Central Park and had a great time.
me, Lisa, Jen & Emily
We asked the kids to line up for a picture and they just coincidentally lined up in age order - so funny!!
Nora, Luke, Charlie, Nate, Ethan, Maci, Jack and Ella (Jen's twins had gone home already)
Maci and Ella pushing Kate and Audrey
Ella loved all the babies!
We got Charlie's school pictures back in April. We had forgotten about picture day, so Charlie's all dressed up in his Benchwarmers shirt and hat (Jack's baseball team).
And our most common pastime...time with the neighbors.
The boys both took pretty good school pictures this year. Jack got eaten alive by mosquitoes the day before his pictures and had bites all over his face, so we paid the extra $5 for facial touch-up. :)
And here are Charlie's:
We had Jack's first parent teacher conference in October. His teacher was very complimentary of him, even going so far as to say she was "smitten with that boy." We were very pleased. She said he always does his work very quickly and she can tell that he's a very fast and eager learner. He passed all the check points with flying colors, as they were skills he's had for a few years (upper and lower case letter recognition, number recognition and shapes). While we were waiting to meet with the teacher, we saw this picture on the bulletin board:
The other thing that was displayed in the hallway was Jack's "All About Me" book, which we loved looking at. One of my favorite things is when kids write words how they sound, and Jack is getting a lot more confident doing that now (vs asking us how to spell each word that he wants to write).
We've since received a second progress report and this one had a few comments on it. One said "Jack needs to curb his talking during my instruction" and the other said "talking and silliness." We are afraid our boy is getting bored. The reason we think that is that he has been telling us. Every day. Some mornings he says he doesn't want to go to school because kindergarten is boring and they're just learning letters and he knows his letters, etc. He complains when he does his homework because it's too easy (and frankly Charlie could easily complete most of the work Jack has brought home). We are going to speak with his teacher to see if there are modifications she can make to challenge him more, but our understanding is that starting after the holidays, they will divide the kids into reading groups so they will be challenged at their own level. That should help some.
Charlie's parent teacher conference this fall went just as well. His teachers really like him and say that he is so fun to have in class. He gets along great with his peers and is great at using his manners. Ironically the checkpoint for Charlie was EXACTLY the same as Jack's (upper and lowercase letter recognition, number recognition and counting and shapes) and Charlie too mastered it. Since Charlie has another year and a half before kindergarten, we suspect we will be in the same boat with this one once he starts school.
A few other fun events that took place at Jack's school:
In November, they celebrated Veterans Day by inviting any family member veterans to attend an assembly. That meant Grandpa Clayton got to go, and Jack, Lily and Mia loved having him there!
Lily & Jack got to sit on Grandpa's lap; Mia was with the choir
We also attended Kindergarten Fun Night. They have a fun night for each grade each year. For kindergarten it was a Friday evening where they just got to play different games (hula hoop, tug-o-war, parachute, egg & spoon race, etc.). I volunteered to help out and was assigned the snack room. It turned out to be a pretty fun station because we got to talk to the kids as they came through. One of the groups had 6 girls from Jack's class and one from another class. I told them I was Jack's mom and they said "oooh, Jack is soooo cute" in their giggly little girl voices. What?? This starts already?? Jack had a lot of fun, and even Charlie got to go - they had some high school kids volunteer to watch the younger siblings, so Charlie and his buddy Logan got to play in a kindergarten class, which they thought was cool.
Jack is all the way on the right, with his orange sleeve on the railing.
The week of Thanksgiving, I had a few days off work, so Jason, Charlie and I brought Jack lunch one day. It was a fun treat for Charlie to see what lunch is like at Jack's school, but boy did Jack get wild at lunch!! He and his buddy Jack (our neighbor) seem to feed off each other and show off - we can see why their teacher made the comments that she did on both of their progress reports!!
