The (Next To) Last Day

Since tomorrow is Field Day, and a half day at that, today was Clare's last full day of Kindergarten. It was filled with parties and special programs, so not a lot of learning per se went on. But there was a lot of celebrating, including one thing about which Clare is very proud - as are we. All year, Clare and her 23 classmates have used the "Behavior Bears" program to enforce the rules. Everyone begins the day on blue. For your first offense, you move your bear to yellow; second offense moves to green; third (or occasionally just really bad) offense moves to red, and at this point something (?) dire happens. I am pleased to say that Clare, along with three other classmates, did not have to move her bear from blue a single time. Her teachers were so impressed with this that they gave them a "blue bear party" today, wherein they received an invitation to eat an exclusive lunch in their classroom with the two teachers. At this lunch they were feted with cake and teddy bears. Does it get any better?

I was happy to draw the slot of Parent Reader on this day, which is essentially the last part of their day before dismissal. Clare chose four books for me to bring, and I just knew that she wasn't going to let me actually read them. I at least got to read the first one, while the class ate their snack. She then displaced me from my chair and ordered me to sit on her square on the mat. Which I did very obediently...and promptly raised my hand to ask if I could eat her snack. Snickers ensued from the kids around me, and the boy to my left advised me to eat one of the gummies. So I did. A few pages in to How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? she read about dinosaurs having a busy carpool. At which point I raised my hand again to remind her that we have a busy carpool, and then asked if other kids in the class carpool. (It's an eco-friendly school - 3/4 of the class carpools.) More moments passed, and one of the kids to my left leaned over and asked me to raise my hand again. I thought up another question and asked it, which then led to a lot of other kids announcing things, prompting Clare's teacher to warn, "Blurt alert!" I decided I better keep my mouth shut from there on out. Then again, it was the last day of school.


Complete with yearbooks! While we read stories, the kids took turns signing everyone's yearbook, which I think is just too cute. And those yearbooks made for a very quiet ride on the way home. But a very different quiet from that first day of school. Sigh. It just went by so quickly.