No One Told Me

No one ever told me that you get teary and all sad and crazy on the LAST day of school. Addy's last day of Kindergarten was last Friday. It's hard to swallow even typing that. How can it be??? She CANNOT be a first grader. Last week...walking up to her school I got all teary. I remember so clearly standing out there on the first day wondering how it all went. Nuts.

And Addy had such an amazing teacher. I will miss her being in our lives so much. She was fun, generous, smart, organized, compassionate, and kind. She was an amazing example for Addy. I hope that we are so blessed with a first grade teacher.

I have several wonderful women in my life who home school. Wonderful women with amazing children. And I would fight hand tooth and nail for their rights to continue homeschooling. However...that is not the road for us...and we are extremely blessed to be allowed to transfer Addy to a district where our family fits in so well and I am so impressed with the curriculum, staff, and policies. (With the exception of the Pete's Pak fiasco.)

There were so many amazing experiences Addy got to participate in that I could not have given her at home. (Because I'm not called for it...not because it couldn't be done.) And I feel like Addy especially got even more than she would have had she been anywhere else.

There were fun things like Apple Day, Tent Day (where they spent the whole day in a huge tent in their classroom), a trip to a Dairy Farm in the town Grammy and Grandpa live in, trips to the little old fashioned theater to see children's plays, Kansas Day (where the whole gym was decked out with old fashioned things for the kids to try out), fun nights, scavenger hunts,singing at nursing homes, parties, band performances, loose teeth charts, having chicks hatch in their classroom, an AMAZING phonics program called SUPERKIDS (in which the characters became almost real to the kids)...I could go on and on and on. And Addy can read most of anything you would put in front of her. She even got chosen to represent her class in a video production for next year.

*A side note about SuperKids. It is the most amazing reading program EVER. I am planning on contacting the administrative person in charge of curriculum and telling her all about how this program makes readers and WRITERS out of EVERY kid and how much I think of it. There are 11 Superkids and 1 Dog and they teach soooo much to kids about how words work. For example...the first SK is Cass. She teaches the kids about the letter C and Cooking. And she makes ice cream cones that are strawberry and vanilla and chocolate. And those flavors turn into the colors on lined papers...and helps you learn letter placement when you write. Isn't that so smart???? And then Oswald with his Odd Animals is next. (Natural letter making progression from C to O.) Each SK has a "thing" like fishing or collecting lions. So each kids is special and marvelous and super. Which teaches OUR kids how special and marvelous and super THEY are. And part of the fun is watching the SuperKids play together and work together and scheme together. So its even good for social skills. I'm telling you. Its amazing. And they all have a song. I hope that Ellie gets to use this program too.

We were so blessed.

About a week before school was out...the Kindergartners put on a little program for parents and family. It was so cute. They sang like 10 songs and then got Kindergarten certificates. It was so fun. Addy did so good. She knew all the words and motions, and didn't freak out at all. (She totally freaked out in preschool programs.) My parents, Neal's parents, and Sally and the Little Major came to see it and then we went out for ice cream. It was so exciting. I'm so proud of her.

Here are pictures of her after her program. (And by the way...no one told me that after school is out...you don't go straight to sleeping in and staying up late. Addy's eyes ping open at 7. We send her back to bed until 8.)