Adam graduated from Preschool on May 26th. Good bye Pre-K - hello Kindergarten! He had been talking about his graduation for about 3 weeks! I think he invited about 20 people to come! At school they had been practicing the songs they were going to sing, and walking across the bridge, and Adam was so darn excited! The week of graduation had finally arrived, and Monday afternoon, Adam came down with the flu! Jackson had been sick the week before - high fever, no energy! I was hoping that Adam had escaped, but apparently he didn't. He was sick Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday (he missed his last day of preschool), and (just like Jackson the week before), woke up Thursday morning with no fever! We were so glad! I was worried he would have to miss graduation!
Each child was supposed to bring a flower for each of his teachers. Here's Adam with his flowers outside the school...
Here he is with Teacher Judy.
And Teacher Dorthy.
All the kids went to the other room to line up and get ready, then they had a little procession into the room where the ceremony was held. Adam was very serious, and wouldn't look at the camera for anything!!
Then they sang a couple of songs...
And acted out "The Very Hungry Catepillar"
Then it was time for the actual graduating part. They called up each child, who then got to bring up their "working" parent (meaning, the parent that was at school one day a week), and we walked across the stage together. While we walked, Teacher Judy had some very sweet words to say about Adam
"Adam-a quietly confident young man, he possesses a certain grown-up thoughtful outlook towards life, and is also so tender and connected to his mom and other people. I felt honored that I was the first person that he shared the good news of a new baby arriving. He loves vehicles, planes, and writing in his journal.
Tammy just joined this year and yet it felt like she had been with us for years. She was a huge help to all."
Adam received a cute certificate, and I got a flower. I didn't expect to be emotional, but I was - I blame it on the pregnancy! I'm amazed at how big my Adam has gotten! I am so proud of the boy he has become! He is so fun to be around, and is anxious to learn! He is so ready to start reading - he loves to sound out words, and is constantly asking me to spell words for him to write down. I'm excited for his next adventure into kindergarten!!
I've pasted below the comments from Teacher Judy to Adam's entire class. It's kind of long, but it really sums up his experience at Crystal Springs this past year. I am so glad we took the opportunity to join with that community for Adam's first taste of "public" school.
Are you feeling the magic in life? If not, you need to take lessons from this class. They’ll show you how to have fun. The parents and I got to see the world through their perspective; EVERYTHING was an adventure, everything was wondrous, miracles happen, baby dinosaurs and fairy princesses are real, super- heros can save you, when they sing monkeys on the bed or the fish song, they really ARE monkeys or fish! And we get to witness their discovery of the world. Every class has a different feel to it. To me, these kids were known for the delicacies of friendships, what it means to be a good friend and allowing those friends to make new friends, physical hugs and connections that ended up in football pile-ups, sometimes hugging so hard that I ended up at the bottom of the pile-up! The girls spontaneously formed circle dances and running and social interactions. They loved listening to stories and acting them out. CAPS FOR SALE was a hit. No one slowed down for one moment! They really knew how to seize the moment and just play and enjoy being kids. Most of them played with a variety of friends, but had a few good buddies at the same time. They did a LOT of learning about sharing and negotiation. You parents have been right there in the teachable moments to make sure that compassion and caring happened. We’ve talked about how sad we are to leave preschool, but also about how much we love and keep old friends. We accepted and honored them for who they are. We also challenged and guided them by setting the limits and rules. They had friendship rules that guided them to do the right thing. We accepted developmental issues, but challenged them academically. We feel very strongly about our play-based philosophy and these people all understood the concept of it. It is not just having toys out, it means engaged, higher level thinking while playing. Thank you for all that you have done and I know that you have learned right along with them. Things were never perfect but then we wouldn’t want it that way-we don’t raise perfect little kupie dolls-we raise real live, well-balanced kids who sometimes make noise, and sometimes quiet down, who sometimes get rough and sometimes know when to calm their bodies, who sometimes get curious, and sometimes know when to stop to listen to another’s curiosity. They learned their ABC’s as they brought sharing and snack and activities that started with the Letter of the Week. You parents had an amazing array of great activities-from arts and crafts to tents and snack shacks, they were all really cool. We kept them very busy! The beauty of a co-op is that there are so many people with a myriad of ideas! These parents were learning how to be better parents and teachers of young children. They even get credits from SCC for it!
