It's Gobbles Time!: school

Showing posts with label school. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

To the Big Elementary School Guy

This was written last week during one of my insomnia nights worrying about my

Dear Gobbles,

We are less than a week before first grade begins and I'm alternating between excitement and tears at the thought of you growing up and hitting the school on your own. Kindergarten was a nice transition in that I didn't see your teacher every day anyway since you took the van, but I still got my Friday face time with her just to see how you were. But this will be so much different, this is the big time.

Your kindergarten graduation was so emotional for me, I think because we've spent 6 years with some of these families, our village, and we've all helped each other through crazy times. I'm lucky that some will stick around at least through your sister leaving pre-k with the siblings, but at the same time so sad that the relationships will change from daily interactions.

You, however, rocked your Kindergarten year and the graduation. You learned to read and went beyond in math. You stuck tight with your buddies but even branched out to some new friends, and came out of school with a confidence that only 5th year seniors have. You've done your summer reading, but for that pesky paragraph you have to write, probably more mommy's procrastination than yours. Even your reading comprehension is coming along- we're halfway through the 2nd Harry Potter book and each time we pick it back up you are able to recall the pertinent details of the previous chapter. You also try to make predictions on what's going to happen and explain why. Since we know the spoilers Daddy and I just let you go with your theories until they're revealed in the reading.

This summer I've seen your transition from a little boy into a big boy. You help out with your chores (although sometimes begrudgingly), you fly across the monkey bars with the ease of a ninja, and you have free reign at the pool to swim, dive, tread, do anything you want and I am confident that you are totally fine. You keep reminding you that one time I mentioned you should get an allowance when you start first grade. You've started watching Big Brother with me and actually pay attention to what is going on and who is "on the block" (I'm so sorry for dragging you into the dark side of reality t.v.). And speaking of the dark side, you're not phased by and of the horrors in and Star Wars, actually cheer when Kylo Ren kills Han Solo (should I be worried?), and for the 2nd Halloween in a row want to be a bad guy with a lightsaber.

Last weekend, we were at the beach, and the third and final day the water was particularly calm yer frigid. After I declared myself spent in the water (it literally took my breath away it was so cold), you said, "that's fine mom, I can float by myself". And you took your boogie board and did just that. I sat in my chair about a hundred yards from the waters edge and watched, half proud, half petrified. Not soon after, you were joined by a girl who introduced herself the day before (9 years old!) and spend the morning riding waves with her. When I finally came to get you out of the water there was another little boy who you'd made friends with too chatting you up the whole way up the beach. We got home that night and Daddy asked how the beach was (he'd been home with the dogs), and your sister in a sing-songy voice started talking about your girrrrlllfriend. I've never see you so embarrassed. It seems that was a little tidbit you wanted to keep to yourself. I can't believe you are already at an age that you don't want to tell us everything!

Well buddy, you're starting a new phase in your life, and at times it may not be as easy as school has been. I'm not concerned at all about you academically, I know you'll do great if you just keep working hard and not rush through everything- you're very smart, but you have to pay attention to what you're doing. The friendships you've had for so many years may change, and the way you interact with each other in a real school environment will be different. It's the big time now, and you're back to being one of the little guys. Just be confident in yourself and don't take to heart what anyone says. I know I know easier said than done.

I'm so proud of you, I'm a little anxious for you, I'm sad that you're growing up, I'm eager for you to learn, and most of all I'm excited for your new adventure! I love you so much Gobbles!

Love,
Mom

P.S. Well we survived our first day yesterday, and I have to admit, although you've been in school for 6 years now, I spent more time wondering what you were up to yesterday than I did the whole time you were at daycare. I don't know why, because you did incredibly. You had your boys with you and you branched out and introduced yourself. You inserted yourself into a conversation to defend someone, and you loved music class and recess. I can't wait to go to back to school night and find out what everything is all about. Thanks for being a good kid, buddy!

Monday, August 3, 2015

The Pre-K Graduate

Back in June, this happened.

Nope. He didn't run for president, although it looks that way, he graduated from Pre-K. My little big man is off to Kindergarten in a month. I was more tearful than he was at this milestone, likely because he is lucky enough to be hitting K with his two best friends in the world and his girlfriend. One more year together for this bunch since their parents need full time kindergarten and transitioning twice will be just too much for their poor mothers.

At this milestone, Gobbles stands roughly 46" tall, weighs around 50 lbs, and is 5 1/2 years old. His favorite color is yellow (followed closely by red and blue, his bffs' faves), favorite foods are mac and cheese, pizza, hot dogs, grilled cheese, pez, m&ms, and teddy grahams. He eats adult-size portions of everything and we're already clipping grocery coupons for when he's a teenager. He still wants to be an engineer when he grows up and wants to go to college close enough that he can still live with Mommy (awww). He prefers T-Ball to soccer but has taken an interest in golf and tennis. It doesn't even occur to him that swimming is a sport / exercise because he has so much fun I cannot drag him away from the water.

He is all about Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Lego Star Wars, just about anything Star Wars, and just completed watching all 6 installments of the movie. He knows the background and relationships of the characters better than I do. Occasionally he gives the galactic empire stuff a rest and relapses into super-hero-dom where Ironman rules followed by Batman and Captain America. The tried and true Disney favorites that remain on high rotation are Big Hero 6, Wall-E, and the Incredibles.

Gobbles is looking forward to Kindergarten except for the fact that he'll now have to wake up 5 mornings a week, since on my home Fridays now he still sleeps in. He's started reading simple books to us at bedtime until he gets a little lazy- Mommy can you just finish it? and I do because I've been told not to push him, and he's exhausted by then anyway. When he's playing restaurant with his sister he's always interested in writing down the order or making us a shopping list, half spelling the words himself and half asking us for clarification. Addition and subtraction seem to come naturally to him and we're working on grasping times tables and division (he's always on point when it comes to dividing up food of course!). My boy has a love for science and hypothesizing as well, correctly guessing outcomes most of the time and learning to be open to other peoples predictions as well.

Although we won't technically be a part of the elementary school yet, I still feel like a milestone has passed in the blink of an eye. My firstborn is now a school-aged kid with homework and extracurriculars and bus transportation. I will no longer get a daily report each day telling me what happened, we'll have to pry it out of him at dinner hoping we get better answers than fine, yes, no. I know everything will work out as normal, but man time flies. I mean, has it really been over 5 YEARS since I started tracking this kid? Thank God I did, even if my posts are becoming more scarce.

Because, wow, he's such a little adult now:

Class...

Best buds!

They've been friends for longer than I was in high school...

I think they've already promised prom dates to each other...

One that we'll miss...

So proud of our boy

HEYYY. DID YOU FORGET SOMETHING?

Boy, no respect for the little siblings!!

Just a touch of a lot of little voices:

Monday, April 27, 2015

Two winter days and a few randoms

This is really it, the last of the winter-time memories (besides Disney!) that I need to get down on paper. I'll start with two "day trips" we had- a few hours of fun at each but a lifetime of memories.

First, we went ice skating at the river rink downtown with daycare friends. It was during hubs' busy time at work but because his commute was short, he was able to meet up with us for the skating hour and I'm forever thankful he did because I don't think either of the kids would have enjoyed it otherwise.

When we first stepped onto the ice, the Lobster was all for it, decked out in a sparkly skirt like a natural performer, linking to her Daddy's hand and ready to go. Gobbles, on the other hand, had a terrible first lap and I just kept thinking, oh boy, what did we get ourselves into? After a few minutes of composing himself though, he began to get a little braver and relied on my hand instead of the wall, as I was able to catch him so he could fall "gracefully" instead of splatting on the ice. We started picking up momentum and going faster, Gobbles occasionally slowing to grab his girl D's hand and do a lap with her (and me and her mom flanking the sides). Hubs and I traded kids back and forth and we all had a blast. By the end of the session the Lobster was done, seeking out her friend K and K's dad, while Gobbles skated until the last call off the ice. On our last lap, he decided to go it alone, and made it pretty well, only falling once.

When the skating was over, hubs departed back to work and we continued the party at the "winterfest", where the adults had beer and the kids had cheese fries before enjoying some of the sideshow activities. It was a nice laid-back afternoon letting the kids enjoy something new and different with their friends, and, since Gobbles is still asking about more ice skating regularly, we're looking forward to it again next year.

Next up, probably a month or two later, we hit up the Crayola Factory with the Poozers. The kids are the absolute perfect age for this and I'd never been, so it was really neat to see the demonstrations and activity centers available. They made their own crayons with personalized labels, watched machines make custom two-tone markers for them, made various shaped crayons, model magic creations, and water color art, all which came home with us. We enjoyed coloring on ipads and watching our air animate on a giant screen for all to see. There was also a two story play-structure in the heart of the factory where they ran and played for a decent amount of time, Gobbles in charge to make sure his fearless sister and cousin were ok in the upper bowels of the place where parents couldn't fit to venture. After we were all sufficiently exhausted, we all hauled across the street to a seemingly hole-in-the-wall pub for what turned out to be a fantastic early dinner with craft brews, wings, sandwiches, and more. Another enjoyable day out!

Finally, despite a ton of running around and socializing this winter we had plenty of downtime too. Gobbles took advantage of his home days and, after completing all of his birthday and Christmas lego sets in record time, settled in to do puzzles, science kits, and more. Santa had brought him a little electronics set which basically has different wiring diagrams to follow and create various circuits to turn on an alarm, music, or a fan. He got the hang of it surprisingly quickly and loved showing me when he completed different projects.

Since the Lobster Roll moved up a classroom at school to the 3 year olds, she has progressed leaps and bounds on her letters, identifying and writing a good number of them, and finally spelling her name (which even gets me tongue tied still). I'm happy to see her confidence soar as she draws her stick figures and tells me detailed stories about what's going on in her artwork.

The crazy juggling of school and play is in full swing!