Kindergarten Year In Review (and some links)

My youngest son just graduated from kindergarten. I have decided to let him enjoy this for a few days until I tell him how many more years he will be in school.  On the bright side, I will tell him that the kindergarten diploma he just got is worth as much as approximately 50% of the bachelor’s degrees you can get.

Now that the school year is over, I would like to take a moment to review some random highlights.

• The best thing that happened over the year was my little dude learning to read. He now reads better than half of the adults I know. That’s either really impressive for my five year old, or it doesn’t say much for my acquaintances. It’s probably a little of both.
• Last week, we narrowly avoided him peeing on Thomas Edison’s house. He disappeared around the corner, and when I followed, I found him getting ready to let loose on a National Landmark. I choose to look at this in a positive light. In the spirit of innovation, he was inventing a new use for the East wall of Glenmont.
• He has been taking swimming lessons since January. Once he figures out how to use his arms and legs at the same time, he’ll be pretty fast. Right now, his technique is to kick like crazy, and use his arms when he remembers. I do recommend not being the water behind him. He kicks indiscriminately.
• His teacher sent home a packet of things that he had worked on during the year.   I learned some things from this packet. He lists his favorite color as white. White. That made me laugh. White is less a color than it is just the absence of color. He loves chicken burritos, recess, and wants to be a scientist like mommy, so that he can do “icsparamitns.” (experiments) He does get around to mentioning daddy. Here is the quote. “My dad cleans the car.” Thanks for that. To be fair, he did also day that he wants to fly to New York in a plane with me. Both my kids love New York for some reason.
• He is has always been an intense child. Whatever he is feeling at any certain time, he is feeling it 100%. If he’s happy, he’s 100% happy. If he’s sad, he’s 100% sad. If he’s angry,,,, oh, it’s probably around 110%. I feel that we have experienced growth in this area during the year. He used to stand at the top of the steps with his little fists clenched and think of the most hurtful thing he could say. It’s been a while since he’s done that, though. I’d have to say it’s been six months since he’s yelled something like, “I hate your life.” My automatic response was to giggle. That might not have been helpful.

Now if I can just get him to eat some vegetables

LINKS

• Article about a couple who bought a Cambodian island for fifteen thousand dollars.  Because life doesn’t have to follow a script.
• On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to summit Mt. Everest.
• Apparently the new X-files script was pretty good.
• My favorite links this week.  Memorial day weekend brought out the food fights this year.  There was a fight over a waffle maker in Michigan.  Also, someone got stabbed over the last rib at a picnic in Indiana.