Pre-K, Teachers, and Cartwheels

The other day Sarah wrote about what was new with them. Since there isn’t one (or two) major events going on with us (we already did that last weekend!) I thought I’d do sort of a “things that are going on” type of post today.

Zachary had his first day of Pre-K on Tuesday. Technically it started Monday, but we were coming back from PA so he didn’t have his first day until Tuesday. When I picked him up I noticed that his daily sheet said that they had practiced counting to 100 in very loud voices (bet that was a barrel of fun!) I asked him if he could show me how to count to 100, and he said, “I’ll show you when it’s your turn to help in my class.” I don’t even know what that means. It’s not like they assign us a day to help out. They are always very happy to have parents come in & help with different things, but they also know it’s hard because, in general, most of the parents work. Although later on he did give us a preview, only he started with 91. He did go to 100, but he skipped 1-90. Then yesterday his sheet said that they had experimented mixing paints – they combined yellow and green to make a new color – BLUE! [insert buzzer sound] Wrong. Yellow & green do not make blue. I’m hoping they just mixed it up when they wrote it. Otherwise I bet the kids were really disappointed as they mixed yellow & green together and there was never any blue coming out of it. I’m a little afraid to ask about it too. We heard from one of the other moms a while back whose son just went through the pre-K there last year that one time they had all these big paper giraffes taped up on the wall. There was one for each child, and each one had a different number of spots. The sign above them read, “My giraffe have [insert #] of spots.” My giraffe have??? I think this was just one of many things they had noticed, so she went to talk to the owner of the school, who then set up a conference with her to “discuss her expectations.” I don’t expect him to learn calculus or anything, but you do sort of expect basic grammar & color-mixing. Needless to say, this mom moved her son (who was one of Zachary’s best buddies) to another school for pre-K – one where all the teachers have masters degrees. It’s pre-K for crying out loud. As long as Zachary goes to Kindergarten next year knowing what he needs to know & doesn’t look like a dummy when he gets there, I’m fine. We can always pick up the slack if need be. Teaching shouldn't stop at the school anyway.

Last month we had one of Zachary’s favorite teachers leave the school. She left to focus on school, in preparation for her wedding in May. Now one of Liam’s favorite teachers (the one he called “Lolly”) has left. There was a note sent home on Tuesday that Friday would be her last day – she decided to move home to be with her family. She had told me on Tuesday (around 5:00) that Thursday (today) would be the last day she’d see me because she was going to leave at 2:00 on Friday. So I went out yesterday to get her a little thank you/going away gift. When I got to the school, her replacement was in there. I didn’t say anything about the other teacher, but this morning Josh asked the Director, who confirmed that the teacher is in fact already gone. What??? She said she’d be there all week! We’re not sure what happened between Tuesday at 5:00 and yesterday, but the director said if we brought them our gift they would make sure that she gets it. Very sad. I know Liam will miss her.

Last night after dinner we were out in the back yard (which has been nice, other than all the mosquitoes!). Zachary was showing us how he can do a cartwheel. I had no idea he knew how to do this. His only problem is his landing. He cartwheels over but then instead of landing on his feet, he lands on his butt. As Josh was trying to show Zachary how to land on his feet, I looked over at Liam, who was raising his hands (just like Zachary was doing pre-cartwheel), then he’d spin around, and then fall down. He was trying to do cartwheels too! I love watching him try to imitate the things Zachary does (well, most of the time). I think it’s so cute that he looks up to Zachary like that & wants to do the things that his big brother does.