On the Good Ship Lollipop

At our elementary school, third grade is a big deal for lots of reasons, but the Famous Americans report ranks right up there near the top. You might remember that Smunch became Jackie Robinson a couple of years ago. It was a huge deal, not just because he stutters, but he had to memorize a five-minute presentation, come in costume and have a certain number of props. It was stressful, both for him and me.

This year, Mam chose to be Shirley Temple Black. I'd never really thought of Shirley Temple as having contributed that much to American society, so it was fun to learn more about her. Not only was she a very, very famous little girl, but she did some interesting things as an adult too. She was a delegate to the U.N., she was an ambassador to Ghana, she was ambassador to Czechoslovakia and she was the first female chief of protocol in the United States. That's kinda cool.

Know what else is cool? The third grade teachers finally decided this year to turn this into a real third grade project. The kids wrote almost all of the presentation themselves, they didn't have to memorize anything, costumes were optional and props were mostly absent. So much more low key and so much less stressful for everyone involved...unless you're sick on the day of your presentation, as Mam was. Then it's kind of sad to lay your curly little tresses on the sofa all day.

But Mam got to perform on Wednesday instead of Monday...and that was just fine. We got to do a "dry run" on the curls and make sure they worked out. She had fun sleeping in foam curlers and she did a great job with her presentation, despite only just being well enough to be back. She made good eye contact, read slowly and clearly and had more poise than I've seen her have before.

This one is super hard-headed, but she's going to do whatever she wants to do with her life...whether you like it or not.

First Day 2012

It's hard to believe she's in third grade all of a sudden. And even harder yet to imagine that he's a fifth grader. Where has the time gone?

I don't know why I ask because I know exactly where much of it goes. The last weeks of summer were full of trips to nature camp for Mam, including her first overnight. Smunch and I played a full 36 holes of mini-golf in her absence...capped by Smunch successfully shooting for a free game (with my ball after shanking it with his own)at the 19th (which was really our 37th) hole.

And I took them both to the water slides in San Jose where we spent the better part of the day having a whole lot of fun and never visiting those towels that were saving us a space on the lawn.

We went for frozen yogurt...several times...we spent time with friends, we cleaned out the studio, which is now unrecognizable after the disaster the kids and their cousins made out there last month. I sold several outgrown kid toys...a sand and water table, a train table, the kiddie pool... I patched two punctured bike tires, replaced the entire innards of the master bathroom toilet, cut down the branches that were knocking down the back fence, and hemmed two pair of baseball pants that were a good six inches too long, but were required for Smunch's travel team. I bought a new vacuum cleaner...an event far more exciting to me than I really want to admit.

And now, the kids are back in school and their limited time at home is filled with homework, soccer practice, baseball practice, orthodontist appointments (now for both), speech therapy and the race to get finished with dinner before bedtime.

What does that mean? It means this year will be over before I know it and that a few minutes from now, I'll be sending Smunch off to his last year of elementary school (which is 6th grade in our district).

When my kids were little and people told me, "Oh, they grown so fast!" I knew what they meant, but I still felt like days moved by so terribly slowly.

It's only now that I'm really beginning to understand.

A First for Second and Fourth

I'm so glad we managed to get away for a few days before school started. And I was tickled pink to be in Yosemite when the call went out to help sort school supplies this year. Thank goodness that was something I couldn't help with at all. I got roped into helping with a coaching clinic for soccer, but that was fine.

I took Mam out to see if I could find her a cute dress for the first day of school. She's always resistant to going out. No matter what she's up to at home, it's always more interesting than anything involving getting in the car. We went to Kohl's. Nothing. We went to Target. Nothing again. I sighed and asked if she wanted to wear clothes she already had or go to the nearby mall...expecting a swift end to shopping. We went to the mall. She found a dress at Macy's. I hated it. I made her go to Gymboree. Nothing she liked and nothing I wanted to afford anyway. I dragged her to JCPenney. Nothing. Finally, I had to suck it up and tell her she could have the dress at Macy's. I hadn't checked the price tag. At least it was on sale.

When we got back to Macy's, she went right back to the dress she'd found and then chose its neighbor...which still wasn't something I would have picked out, but was a whole lot cuter than the original choice. I agreed quickly and we checked out as fas as possible, before she could change her mind.

She may have been overdressed for the first day of school, but at least she was cute.Smunch wasn't thrilled with the teacher he'd been assigned for the year. I was pretty happy because she was the only fourth grade teacher who wasn't new to the school and she has a good reputation. It didn't show that much, but I think Smunch was pretty anxious about the first day.Mam, on the other hand, got just the teacher she wanted...except that that teacher now has a shared classroom, so she'll only be there part time and is sharing with a former kindergarten teacher. I like her teachers, but I wasn't super thrilled about another shared contract. Mostly, I was relieved that she didn't get one of the other teachers...who is also a terrific teacher, but I thought Mam would be particularly poorly suited to her style.

Mam couldn't wait to get to school. She really missed her friends over the summer and was just so excited about everything!As is tradition...in many families, I suppose...Daddy and I walked the kids to school.They chattered happily the whole way. It's so nice to have them be excited about school. When I look at what other parents deal with in terms of first-day jitters and separation issues, I have to admit that I'm very fortunate. My kids clearly love me, but they're also happy without me. I must've done something right somewhere along the line!This year was strange because the kids wait in lines all the way across the blacktop from each other. So, I couldn't easily go back and forth between them. I missed meeting any of the teachers. But that was fine. One of them knows me and the other two probably know who I am as well. I've been a known quantity at school for a while now.

Both kids seemed perfectly happy in line for their new classes. Although I'm sure he had no qualms, Daddy carefully questioned Mam about whether she was really ready for second grade.Mam gently reassured him that she was indeed ready for the year and all it entailed.

As if I needed more proof that I burned out almost every volunteer impulse last year, I took one look at the annual back-to-school coffee (where the year's volunteers are recruited) and decided that I'd really like to go home...to my eerily quiet house, eat breakfast and read the paper.

Mam, predictably, had a great first day and to my great relief, Smunch was thrilled with his class too and reports that he really likes his new teacher.

It's going to be a good year.

Another Last

The end of the school year seemed to come up in such a rush, that I barely figured out what I needed to do before it was all over. I was responsible for organizing a portion of each of the end-of-year picnics - 1st grade and 3rd grade. And I got tasked with collecting donations for a gift for Smunch's teacher...not my favorite activity since I went crazy on that stuff when Smunch was in 1st grade.

So, in the end, I just took photos of the kids with their teachers. I'll certainly miss them all. I couldn't have been happier when I learned that we'd have these teachers this year. It seems like just moments ago that I was delivering their school supplies and introducing myself. This year flew by in something even faster than a blur.

Here's Smunch and his teacher, Mrs. Panec. Despite my freaking out over Smunch's oral presentation, I have to say that she is possibly one of the warmest, most wonderful teachers I've ever met. If you'd asked me at the beginning of the year, I would have said that warm and wonderful were not the qualities I really looked for in a teacher for my son. Structured and strict were more like it. I didn't know how this year would go. But you know what? It was his best year yet.

Mam had two teachers this year. They split the week with the class and they've been teaching as a team for years now. They complement each other very well and I hadn't dared hope she'd be chosen for their class. It was just what I wanted.Unfortunately for the teachers, they didn't get the easiest class ever. They were chatty, they were loud, there were several fairly disruptive children. Mam wasn't one of them. She did fine and she had a fine time. She liked everyone. Everyone seemed to like her. She had at least one "boyfriend" at any given time during the year.Her teachers seemed to manage the class with just about as much grace as any teachers could possibly muster. And as much as I know that class drove them crazy, there were still tears on the last day. I'll miss them as well.

I only hope we're so lucky next year!

Jackie Robinson...only shorter and paler

It was a big day in the life of our dysfluent little baseball lover today. Third grade at our school includes a big Famous Americans unit. The culmination of this unit is for each student to pick a "famous American", then research that person and do a five-minute presentation for the class and parents. It's a VERY. BIG. DEAL. The kids come in costume, their presentation must be memorized and it has to include props.So, it's a very big deal for most kids. But you have to understand that this is my kid. The one who stutters...sometimes severely. When we started this project, his ability to speak was so poor that he struggled just to read the words from the page, even though his reading skills are just fine. His teacher wasn't initially so willing to cut him any slack with the time limit. So, I've been kinda stressed.

Generally speaking, I don't consider my kid disabled. I don't consider him "differently abled". He's just a kid who happens to stutter. And until now, it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference to him.

I talked to his stuttering specialist and she's been seeing him twice as often since we started this project. I talked to the speech therapist at school who got the teacher to cave just a little...tell him he had no time limit and put him last in the day so she'd have more leeway on that.

We worked on memorizing places to use his "speech tools" in addition to memorizing all those words. We all worked hard. Smunch wasn't always thrilled with all the practicing. I wasn't thrilled either. We practiced while I worked out, we practiced in the car, we practiced with sound effects, with props, with projection, with a nice slow pace. We practiced and practiced. I think I had it almost as well memorized as he did.Today was the big day. And #42? He may have left out a line here and a word there, but he never needed prompting, he was one of the few kids you could understand. He was engaging and the kids laughed at his singing coffee can. Not once did they laugh at the way he spoke.I didn't cry. But it's not because he wasn't awesome.

Punkins

I was pretty jazzed after our World Series experience and I had a hard time going to sleep that night, but that didn't mean I wasn't expected at school bright and early the next morning...not just dropping the kids off, but leading an entire group of third graders in reading. And I hadn't done my homework beforehand...because Smunch hadn't done his the night before. Fortunately he had earned a "Ready Freddy" award that week. It allows him to skip a night of homework. I don't get Ready Freddy awards.

Thursday afternoon, I was slated to go in and help the first graders and their fouth grade buddies carve pumpkins. It was cute and Mam enjoyed herself a lot, despite her not-so-helpful buddy.I was back again on Friday morning, helping the third graders with "pumpkin math". I couldn't believe the group of kids Smunch's teacher gave me. I had Smunch, but the other three...all boys...are some of the least motivated goofballs around. It was challenging, but ultimately, it was fun...estimating weight and size, guessing how many seeds were inside, seeing if it would float.Naturally, Friday afternoon was the big Halloween shindig. I got both kids into their costumes, then helped set up the third grade party. I watched the school-wide Halooween parade, but didn't take any decent pictures. I don't love the kids' costumes this year and Mam's wig was sitting on the side of her head. Both costumes really required makeup, but no time to do that at school. They looked ridiculous. Really.

I made my now-famous cheese bugs for the first grade party (third graders were limited to apple juice and sugar cookies)Of course, the first grade parties always have the cutest stuff!Thankfully, there was no baseball on Friday, so we got a little break. Thursday evening, Matt Cain threw a 9-0 shutout in the Giants victory. Giants were up 2-0 and headed to Arlington, TX.

Supplies Overlord...or Overload...or Something

Unlike most parents at our elementary school, I spent time over at the school every single day for the week before school started (except for that Friday out with my mom). I'm sure the kids had already had their fill of the playground, long before that first bell rang.

On the upside, I got early access to class lists and already knew I was happy with where the kids had been placed. Most parents were left to be anxious about that for several days after I knew. On the downside, every time I looked at this:I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was just one tiny person in a vast sea of school supplies.

A couple of the third grade teachers, who are oh-so-particular, decided they wanted their supplies earlier than my promised Thursday delivery date. I made no promises, but since I have reason to want happy third grade teachers this year, I was compelled to go in by myself and sift through the third grade supplies. I was lucky to have a good friend join me for part of the morning because it was a ton of stuff to go through. I arrived around 9. We had it delivered around noon...to a couple of very happy and appreciative ladies.

Naturally, the third teacher on their team noticed us delivering supplies. I didn't have time to deliver hers, but by that evening, I had an e-mail requesting her supplies as well, please. I went back to deliver those on my own the next day.

Wednesday, a small team of volunteers came and we opened all the boxes to make sure we had everything for each grade. Naturally, we didn't. But at least we knew what we didn't have. It was a job made difficult by the fact that the janitorial staff chose Tuesday afternoon to wax half the room housing the supplies, giving us very little room to work in.We basically had that little corner back there where all the supplies are stacked.

Thursday, a large team of volunteers came and helped divvy everything up into supplies for each classroom. More things were missing and I'm not sure why. Who would steal 50 packages of colored pencils?? But everything got squared away. My little micromanaging brain had a moment of panic when I realized that I really didn't know who took what where, but I'm so appreciative that we have such a great school community where I could recruit 16 volunteers without much effort, that I had to let that little aspect of the process go.

I've spent the past week retrieving missing items and dealing with botched orders, but I think my job is nearly at an end...at least mostly. I still have two quarters worth of baby wipes to purchase, after all. But I'm fairly happy with how things turned out. Unlike my last big PTA project, I feel like this one was a success, as far as it went.

I have some ideas about how to improve the process. I'll be happy to share those with next year's school supply chair!

The Return

Remember those school supplies I mentioned? This is what I returned to.All those paper towels and such are the things I've been schlepping from Costco all summer long. The boxes are the ones that were delivered in my absence. All these things have to be divvied up an delivered to the proper classrooms. So what did I do?Took Smunch to a baseball game, of course. He opted to skip going to a game in San Diego in favor of watching his second place Giants play the division-leading San Diego Padres in San Francisco right after we got back.

We had great seats, Timmy was pitching, we got to see Buster Posey hit a home run and Andreas Torres make a spectacular catch. But it was a miserable game. For the first time ever, Smunch asked to leave during the 7th inning. Final score 8-2. The highlight might've been having Amy Gutierrez, the sportscaster for CSN broadcast from our section. And really? That's not very exciting!Fortunately, I didn't face the mountain of boxes at school on my own. A good friend came on Monday and helped me meet the request by the 3rd grade teachers to get their supplies early. Then I went on my own on Tuesday to deliver supplies to the last 3rd grade teacher. My army of volunteers showed up on Wednesday and Thursday and the job was quickly dispatched...despite a lot of glitches in the order. Many odds and ends to tie up. May I feel less need to volunteer this year!

Farewell to Kindergarten

I feel a little weird about no longer having a kindergartner. I'm not altogether sad about it except that I know Mam will be lucky to get a first grade class as fantastic as her kindergarten class. They really were a great group of kids. Six of them won't be joining her in first grade, either because they need to repeat or because they're going to school elsewhere. I'll miss them.

The presentation of kindergarten diplomas came the day before the last day of school because they spend that last day at the park (a different park from the one the other kids go to). I rushed from a rare business meeting for the occasion and was happy to find that I hadn't missed a thing.The teacher said something sweet about each child as she handed them their diplomas. She managed to hold it together, but I think most of the audience was at least a little teary.I suspect this teacher knows how lucky she was with this class and she'll miss them too, at least a little.

I joined a few other parents and went to the park early on Wednesday to hold down the spot for 80 kindergartners to take over. We spent much of our time hanging donuts for the traditional donut-eating contest.Before the kids were allowed near the 60s-style donut curtain, there was a whole lot of other fun to be had.But the donut-eating contest/game (it's not really a contest) is the best part of all. Not only do the kids get to eat a donut each, but it's one of the best kids' photo opportunities ever.And finally...This alone makes me a little wistful about having no more kindergartners.

Once the slightly-organized chaos was over, each class met with their teacher for one last goodbye. Mam didn't really want to pose for one last photo with her first elementary school teacher, but in the end, you can't even tell. What a great year it was!

Random Kidism #12

I'm fully aware that other kids are as hysterical as my own...at least to their own parents. But I don't usually post the things I overhear, probably because I'm not at home and I never remember stuff like that long enough. But today I was volunteering in the kindergarten room. One of Mam's classmates, a normally nice an cooperative little boy, was having a hard time, didn't want to do his work and insisted that his tummy hurt and he wanted his Mommy. I felt really bad for the little guy, even though I suspected he wasn't really sick (but who knows, right?).

When I was done with my group, I asked the teacher if I could take the little guy to the office for her. She said yes, then explained to him that Mrs. Ryder would take him to the office. He looked at me and grabbed my hand. Such a sweet little gesture of trust and appreciation, yet all I could think was, "No, no, don't touch me. I don't want your germs!" Seriously. I don't think I let on. We walked hand-in-hand to the office where I explained to the very nice office staff that I was bringing him over from the kindergarten because he didn't feel good. As the admin, Lydia, (not her real name, of course) took him back to check his temperature, I overheard this conversation:

Lydia: What seems to be the matter?

Boy: My tummy hurts.

Lydia: Do you feel like you want to...you know...throw up?

Boy: Yes.

Lydia: Do you feel like you are going to throw up right now?

Boy: No, I only do that in the car.

Gingerbread Parties

One of these years, I'll decide that our elementary school's gingerbread house decorating parties are no longer blog-worthy. After all, it's pretty much the same thing year after year. Every child in every grade gets to construct a house out of royal icing and Graham crackers, then decorate it with as much candy as they can pile on there.

This was the first year where I could volunteer at two different parties and since I find it hard to choose between my two children in these situations, I ran back and forth between their mercifully close together classrooms. I made frosting, supplied gumdrops and helped with construction in the second grade class...before zipping over to the kindergarten to help Mam decorate her pre-made house.Mam's regular glasses were in for repairs and a prescription change (to something lighter!), so she'd been wearing her brilliant blue Rec Specs for about a week and a half at this point...going oh-so-nicely with all her cute holiday dresses. There was a reason she had no glasses on in her photo with Santa.

I zipped back to Smuch's classroom in time to watch him load up the center of his house with as much candy as he could...learning very little from his classmate whose house felt apart from all the candy pushing on the walls.In the end, it was a cute little house, which got dropped on the ground as Smunch tried to wrestle all his stuff out of the classroom at dismissal. Although I promised we'd repair it, I'm not even sure where it ended up after that afternoon.I imagine I'll find a very stale, dilapidated house in a shoebox somewhere in the coming months.

Mam also finished decorating her house...not without an added ceremonial hat.She carefully added a lookout bear on the roof.Lookout bear didn't make it home either, but he met a different fate than Smunch's house...devoured by a fierce predatory reindeer.

Another Year, Another Kindergartner

Scrolling back through the posts I've written this summer, it's painfully obvious just how busy we were. I try not to write much when there's nothing much going on, but that was rarely the case. This is perhaps the first year both kids will really remember the summer...based on how old they are. I hope they remember it fondly and not as a mishmash of dizzying, but fun experiences.

School started so early this year. It wasn't even late August yet. But then, something had to curb my need for overscheduling, I guess. And I was so excited to see Mam off to kindergarten, with the expectations that she'd be very, very happy there and I'd be happy to have the kids in the same place.

Before the big Wednesday first day of school, Mam had a lemonade social at the kindergarten where she got together with her future classmates and got to meet her new teacher. After all that posing at Disney World, Mam was happy as a clam to pose with her latest princess. Looks familiar, doesn't it?This one, she gets to keep visiting for the rest of the year. And she'll only have to compete for attention with 19 other kids rather than a whole theme park full.

The teachers took all the kids in the classroom to read a story and left the parents out on the playground. Since we were a couple of minutes late, Mam wasn't sure what to make of that, but I got away with escorting her halfway into the classroom...just enough that she could see that she knew other kids in there...and then quickly making my way back out.

Tuesday, I took the kids to my hairdresser for haircuts. Smunch's hair had been cropped so short during the summer, that I just had her tidy it up so it would grow out nicely. Mam, on the other hand, said emphatically that she wanted her hair cropped up to HERE! (with her hand up above her ear). I refused, but she had it cut as short as I was willing to go. I really prefer the long hair, but not the long hair-combing battles, so she gets her way.

Wednesday finally came and I had the kids dressed 'just so' and ready for their first day. Cute clothes, new backpacks, new lunch bags, combed hair, brushed teeth. Mam was excited. Smunch seemed happy, but very slightly apprehensive.The whole family took the short walk to the kindergarten yard, where Mam immediately ran off to play with her friends, including her Sarah who is in her class for the first time this year. After a few minutes, the bell rang and Mam flew past me, "Bye, Mommy!" she waved as she joined the line.So very, very different from her brother. She trotted happily off into the classroom with barely a glance behind her.

We wandered over to the "big kid playground" where Smunch quickly found his line and stood in it, still looking slightly anxious.But it all went away when he met his nice, new teacher. She's quite fabulous, I hear. My interactions with her to date would certainly suggest that's true. Very, very nice with a great reputation.I'm happy about his teacher and about the kids (and parents!) in his class. It's shaping up to be a really good year and in the end, he seemed happy to be off to second grade.Second grade. That used to sound so very old!

And I went off to the Welcome Back Coffee to overvolunteer myself for yet another year. I avoided becoming anyone's room mom, but signed up to help the room mom in both classrooms. I'll be in Mam's room weekly to help out and may be taking both classes to the library from time to time. I'm looking forward to it.

What I didn't realize is that while everything is new and different for the kids, it's really kind of new and different for me too. The volunteering hasn't really kicked into gear yet, so I'm feeling a little adrift in a big sea of parents and kids. All the same friends are still there, but we're all doing different things with different routines than we had last year. I'm hoping that as soon as things firm up a little and I'm getting into the classroom again, I'll feel like I've got a "place" there. Until then, at least my blog is up to date.

It's now Monday and the fourth day of school for both kids. To my great relief, they seem to be getting happier and happier with school. They're both happy to go and happy to stay. I don't know how it could be going better. This is the first year it's actually been easy!