Home for the Holidays

I'm a little out of order here. We went to Santa Cruz after the kids were done with school for the year. BUT, before kids can be done with school, there must be much celebrating at school. For Mam, that meant participating in the preschool's annual Holiday Sing. The school does four of these each year. One for kids who go to school Tuesday/Thursday mornings, one for kids on the same days, but in the afternoons, one for kids who go MWF mornings and a last one for kids going MWF afternoons. Mam's group represented the final group of about 100 kids, going on stage to perform.

Mam's class is the only class of 3-year-olds in the bunch. The rest are 4- and 5-year-olds. As usual, Mam loved being on stage and seeing Mommy, Daddy, Gram and Grandpa in the chairs below. Also, as usual, the crowd of type-A parents arrived ridiculously early, so even though Daddy arrived to save us seats about 20 minutes early (I was volunteering in Smuch's classroom 'til the last minute), we sat in the back row of the main section.

The kids were predictably adorable singing about a dozen holiday songs with hand motions and piano accompaniment. Afterwards, they got to have a cookie snack in their classroom while all the parents stood around and congratulated them on their performance. One of my favorite moments of the day was when Santa made a surprise visit to the classroom. Mam was visibly in awe...

Who knew Santa came to see kids at preschool and hand out presents too??

Not to be outdone (although he kinda was), Smunch also had a party at school, although no concert. His party consisted of decorating gingerbread/graham cracker houses. And his was the best! Well, no, it wasn't the best at all, but it had character...a character I suspect was influenced by Smunch's rather strong desire to eat his house. It was devoured fewer than 24 hours after it got home!

The highlight of that party was that I'd accidentally gotten myself appointed coordinator of the class gift. I was fine with that, but the presentation was another story. I have no self confidence when it comes to standing in front of a crowd, even if it's mostly just a crowd of kindergartners. So, you can imagine I felt just slightly proud of myself for getting all the kids to chime in and say "Thank you, Ms. Britton!" as we presented her gift. And to the aide as well. Phew!

One final hug for his teacher before he left and we were all home for the holidays...for two weeks...whatever will we do?? Stay tuned...

Last Days

I never realized quite what a bittersweet time of year the end of school is for parents. It's not just that you suddenly have to come up with entertainment for the summer, but you get to know and trust the kids' teachers. And, of course, it was Smunch's very last year of preschool, so that held some particular significance.

Smunch's school doesn't have a preschool graduation. I guess it's a good idea really. Not all of the 5-year-olds are going to kindergarten next year. The preschool has a program for 5-year-olds as well...aka, kids who weren't quite ready for kindergarten yet. Instead of a graduation, the school holds a big party in the park. All the kids in the school are invited. It was crazy, but so much fun! There were tons of very kid-friendly games and prizes. There was a bounce house, of course, and a funny, inflatable caterpillar that the kids could climb through and apparently get pooped out the end.

I couldn't believe they had one game that seemed especially designed for Mam. Under a little shade tent, they'd set out tubs of sand filled with "treasure" for the kids to dig for. I think she could have stayed there forever. In fact, she was there when they packed up...taking the tubs and the tent and leaving her to sift through the little mountains of sand that kids had dumped on the lawn!

And here's a photo of Smunch with his favorite teacher. It's funny. Mrs. M was kind of a severe-looking woman who actually made one of the little girls cry on the first day of school...just looking at her! She didn't put up with any BS from the kids and wasn't the warmest or snuggliest of the teachers. Throughout the year, I sometimes asked Smunch who his favorite teacher was and he always said "All of them." Finally, on the last day, it became Mrs. M. By that time, I'd realized what a terrific, caring teacher she really was too.

Mam's last day of school wasn't for another week, but it has come and gone as well. She had some warm, wonderful teachers this year and she was crazy about school. I hope that lasts! She'll be going to Smunch's school next year. I'm excited. It's so neat to watch them growing up and really starting to learn about everything. This is Mam with Miss Sandy. I don't know that she was Mam's favorite, but she was too busy fighting with Smunch over a mini beach ball to have her photo taken with her other teacher! This photo was a darned sight cuter than her official school photo!

Safari Close to Home

Today was kind of a weird one. It was all about the animals though. Smunch woke up early this morning. He crawled into bed with us about 6:30 and waited for his favorite morning show, Caillou, to start...asking about it every 5 minutes or so. Sometime after that (in my hazy stupor, I'm not sure when), he brought me a piece of paper and asked me to draw a vase for him. I stuck one hand out from under the covers, grabbed his black crayon and drew him a vase. It kept him happy until he was finished with this masterpiece...the inside of a 'thank you' card for his speech therapist at the school district. Today was his last day with her. Of course, the problem was that he was so busy with this artistic endeavor that he didn't want to eat breakfast!

On a side note, Smunch's much-improved speech fluency is deteriorating slowly again. Maybe the big swings in his ability to speak will get smaller, at least.

This afternoon, I took Smunch to school. We always go in the back way and there's a lovely grassy area there, surrounded by trees. Only today, it had been "decorated". It turned out the kids were going on a safari! This was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. I dropped Smunch off and went home to get my camera. I'm not really sure I captured the scene very well. One of the other classes actually had a checklist of animals they had to find and binoculars for looking for animals. I loved the monkeys and birds hanging from the trees. There was even a family of opossums hanging from a branch. There were lizards sunning themselves on rocks, a "lake" (blue tarp) with fish, turtles and manatees. I couldn't help feeling like it would have been absolutely magical as a kid.


Smunch's class was much more of a free-for-all, with no real structured activity around this amazing set-up. Still, the kids were awfully excited and very cute. Mam, who was with me, was equally enthralled. Although it wasn't the most impressive item in the jungle, Smunch was enamored with a little peacock he found.

Smunch was pretty mystified that I'd turned up at school again. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and observed him "in his native habitat" instead of disturbing his school day with my picture taking.

I tried to get out of there as quickly as I could, but I also remembered that this is his last Friday at preschool...ever. And on Fridays they get to play in the "far yard". I whisked Mam off for a quick trip to TJ's so we might have something to eat tonight, dropped off the groceries and headed the mommymobile to the far yard.

The far yard contains the "circlecycle". It sounds weird, but this has got to be one of the coolest things ever invented for a preschool playground. I'll bashfully admit that seeing the circlecycle in action was one of the things that sold me on this particular school. It's a really cooperative toy. Five kids can ride at a time, but they all have to get together and decide how to do it first. They can ride forward or backward, but they all have to pedal and coooperate to make it work like it's supposed to. It's true playground genius!

Of course, it's not all fun and games with the circle cycle. You don't want to be caught trying to dig the track out of the sand when someone else starts pedaling and you certainly don't want to get so curious that you stick your head in there while kids are riding at mach speed. I've noticed that some preschoolers haven't quite developed this sort of obvious common sense, but still...