Last Day of Kindergarten (July 1)

I need someone to explain this to me. And, yeah, I know. The hair. The ridiculous surfer hair is a big part of it. But it can't be all of it. How can a kid change so much in ten months?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but, this doesn't look like a first grader? This looks like a junior higher, right? Please ignore those shoes. He put his nice ones on and his toes were turned all up under themselves to fit inside. This was our only other option.

Apparently a mother is supposed to check things like, DO THE SHOES FIT? And replace them when that answer is a resounding NO. Oh well. Isn't it enough that he had a button down shirt, a belt and decent pants? Strive for mediocrity and you'll never be disappointed.

His teacher chose seven kids to say a line in to the microphone. He'd been practicing his line for weeks and weeks. He was so ready to shout out that line that he walked down to the microphone before the previous song was quite finished. As the final notes of the song played out, he began to speak. He looked at his teacher who subtlety shook her head, no. "Oops," he said and quickly threw both hands over his mouth. It was the most adorable mistake I've ever seen. When the previous song finally ended, he said his line loud and clear.

Then he and one of his buddies got their perfect attendance awards. And he declared to his principal, "I got perfect attendance because I came to school EVEN WHEN I WAS SICK!" The principal laughed and I searched for the nearest hole to climb into and die. Then I explained that there was only one day that he was sick, it was right before they went off track, he had a cold and a low grade fever--nothing a little ibuprofen couldn't handle. Etc. Etc. Etc. Word vomit everywhere. I promise I didn't infect the whole school. 

Their principal is leaving anyway so I'll never see him again. Perhaps he'll remember me as "That Crazy Mom Who Sent Her Son To School With The Black Plague."

Then he posed with his teacher. He declared to her, "I won't get perfect attendance next year because I'm missing two days of school to go to Israel." (More on that later. But I will say that international travel in October is the one good thing about the track system.) She agreed that he'll learn more in two days in Israel than he'd ever learn in first grade just before going off track.

It was a great year. He's reading voraciously. He's above the bench mark in all areas of math. (We're questioning whether he may have been switched at birth.) He's made lots of friends. Over the course of the year he received all E's and one S. His teacher liked him. He lost his hand stamp only twice all year. Now we're going to go ahead and blast full speed ahead into first grade.

And then college. Because time is flying way too fast.