As my husband said, “One down, 23 to go”. Which is fuzzy math to me unless we’re willing for both kids to drop out in their Junior year (and not go to college). But regardless, he’s right. One down.
And let me tell you, the month leading up to Graduation was quite the adventure. In mid-May, I traveled to NY for the Webby Awards and went early to spend time with my sister to celebrate our shared birthday:
I returned home to a letter from Zoe’s teacher about her final project, a diorama, due on the day before graduation. Which, in theory, gave us plenty of time to complete it, right? To our credit (well, to Bart’s credit), we booked our most artistic sitter (she is in fact studying animation and has exceptional drawing skills) and tasked her with helping Zoe get started.
We got home and that diorama was complete!
In case you were curious, it was an homage to the Pileated Woodpecker, the “Amazing Animal” that Zoe chose for her project among the many, many amazing animals they studied towards the end of school. Did you know that the Pileated Woodpecker was the inspiration for the shock absorber? Check out why:
“Woodpeckers’ hyoid bones act as additional support structures. In humans, the horseshoe-shaped hyoid is an attachment site for certain throat and tongue muscles. Woodpeckers’ hyoids do the same job, but they’re much larger and are differently shaped. The ends of the “horseshoe” wrap all the way around the skull and, in some species, even around the eye socket or into the nasal cavity, eventually meeting to form a sort of sling shape. This bizarre-looking bone, the researchers think, acts like a safety harness for the woodpecker’s skull, absorbing shock stress and keeping it from shaking, rattling and rolling with each peck.”
Yes, I’ve learned a lot from Kindergarten.
In fact, I learned the Pledge of Allegiance, since apparently Zoe was sad at school one day that she couldn’t remember all the words so her friend wrote it down for her (forgive the offensive but innocent typo):
And the weekend before the last week of school, my amazing husband booked us a “staycation” in downtown LA, complete with hotel stay, nice dinner and spa treat to celebrate our birthdays! What a man what a man what a mighty good man.
To add excitement to all the other things we had to do before the end of the school year, they added “Career Day”, “Crazy Hair Day”, “Crazy Sock Day” and “Red White and Blue Day”. In fact, they first announced that Crazy Hair Day was going to be on Friday before the last week of school, which apparently changed, which no one told us, and our daughter was one of 2 kids with crazy hair that day… oops? Worse… we hadn’t prepared for it on THAT day and had only leftover silver hairspray from Halloween and Dad had to stop on the way to school and find purple spray – for a day that wasn’t the right day.
Anyway, we survived. Oh, and for career day, Zoe insisted on being a princess. We can’t seem to break her dream…
But back to graduation.
I captured the key moments on video, just for you.
The opening included a brief performance, including this demonstration of how to say HELLO around the world:
A song, “Down By The Bay” (guess which kid is ours? hint: she’s bouncing):
And finally, the teacher called each student up one at a time and before giving them their diploma, she said something very heartfelt and kind about each – a “special award”. She recognized Zoe for being a big helper in the classroom, helping both the teacher and her fellow students and making sure everyone was taken care of (sounds like her Dad):
After graduation, there was a potluck in the classroom, during which I was thanking Zoe’s teacher for all the nice things she said when Zoe overheard us and said, “But, Mrs. Alvy, I know a lot of things! I raise my hand a lot because I know the answer, and I watch Wild Kratts like every night.”
Turns out that instead of being recognized for her helpfulness, she wanted to be recognized for her knowledge (as a couple of other kids had been – one for science, one for animals). And for the record, most kids were recognized for a soft skill like sense of humor or politeness, but hey, I guess she’s my kid after all.
And so, onward and upward. Here comes 1st grade AND Ella will be entering pre-school in September. Wish us luck that we all survive summer day camps…
Emphasis on Joy 