Be Still, My Beating Heart

Jack? In kindergarten? How can it be...? Everyone seems delighted with this arrangement and there was an air of excitement as all the kids prepared for the first day of school. Still, there was a small wrenching of my heart as Jack jumped out of the car and trundled off to class with nary a backward glance...

Ready to Roll

Once in a great while, they're ready to go out the door on time!

School's In!

It's official: as of today, everyone is back in school! Claire and Jack were so excited to put on their first-day-of-school outfits. They were allowed to choose the clothes for themselves and it's fun to see how they stay true to their own sense of style. Off they go, new lunchboxes in hand, and just like that, another year goes flying by...

No Two are Alike

Jack was not at all thrilled about his stint as a snowflake in his preschool's winter holiday program. "Too many people!" he said. So while everyone else danced and twirled and swirled their paper cutouts in the air, Jack just stared at the ground. Finally, he gave up altogether and sat down on the floor, arms crossed, glaring at the audience with a scowl firmly planted on his face. Oh well, at least he kept his silly hat on.

Summa Cum Kitty

I tell you, nothing in my lengthy university career prepared me for the intellectual requirements of my current life. Knowing that it's for the aide and benefit of first grade math studies brings some honor to the task, but do you have any idea how challenging it is to draw a kitty face on a lima bean? Just try it, I dare you.

School Daze

I can't believe it's the first day of school again! Claire was up and dressed an hour before it was time to leave. She was so insistent that it was time to go, we ended up being the first folks on campus. She's got a special reason to be excited this year, as all the same classmates and the teacher "rolled over" from kindergarten; it's a big reunion, and she handled it like a pro.

I'm not sure I'm handling it as well. I may have come back from Europe a month ago, but my brain was still on vacation until last Sunday. That's when the big-kids-are-back/back-to-school chaos hit me like a tsunami. I was up really late last night, trying to get all the paperwork organized and planning for lunchbox hell; we've reached epic levels of nobody-will-eat-the same-thing-for-lunch and I've finally caved in to the pressure -- as long as they'll eat something, fine!

Jack's a little bummed out that he's the only one who didn't get to go somewhere today, but he's not holding a grudge. He'll start preschool MWF in a couple of weeks, and that gives him some extra time to work on his back-to-school look...

Front Page News

I love it that we live in a town small enough that our local
newspaper has this as its front page story for the week:

Making Tracks at Del Mar

"Del Mar Middle School’s new field is now officially open. On Friday, students were permitted to race around the 380-meter track made of Nike grind and topped with the same mixture but colored a muted red. The first students to make the circle were sixth, seventh and eighth graders who had contributed to the school’s Leukemia Foundation. Seventh grader Wynham Guillemot and sixth grader Shannon Costello were the first boy and girl to finish the lap. Regular activities began on the field and track this week, including use of the new long jump pit."

(photo by Diane Smith)

Too Darn Hot

Jack was scheduled to start preschool next week, and I spent the last few days fantasizing about what I would be able to do around the house with those precious few hours alone. Most unfortunately, those dreams went up in smoke yesterday -- literally.

It took the fire department over an hour to put out the blaze, but luckily the 60 children in attendance were all evacuated safely before the blaze got out of control. Wynham went here for after school fun while I was still working full time, and Claire graduated from her Pre-K class in this building last year.

I know our townfolk will rally around in support of the kids and all the programs that are now without a "home". Hopefully it won't take too long to rebuild. I just can't believe that a sparking light socket could gut an entire building in such short order, but that's the official cause. Either that, or Jack really didn't want to start school...

The 100th Day

Today was the 100th day of school, and in kindergarten, that's a really big deal which merits a full day of festivities focussed on the number "100". Each child had to do a project that included one hundred of some item, and Claire's first thought was -- you guessed it -- cookies!

Luckily, she did a poster with 100 heart stickers on it, so the cookies were just an extra and we decided to count by fives and I only had to make twenty. Which was exactly one for each child in the class. They were apparently pretty happy about them, as the picture Claire's teacher sent might suggest. Have I mentioned before how much I love kindergarten?

Of Thee We Sing

Claire can be such a wild card sometimes. So I was surprised and impressed when she stood straight and tall and got all her cues right as her class performed their first concert last week, in honor of Martin Luther King Day. She looks so grown up and I remember two seconds ago when it was our teenage daughter, up there, that age. For one moment I want to stop the clock so that time doesn't slip away so fast. When you have your whole life ahead of you, you're in such a hurry, but lately I've wanted to slam on the brakes more and more often. Of course, having kids gives you the luxury of living vicariously...

Me and Julio

If you ask Claire, I'm fairly sure she'd say that Julio's holidays were not at all shabby. Julio (the class "pet") went back to the kindergarten classroom yesterday, and at the end of the week he'll go home with one of Claire's classmates. He was a pretty good little house guest, always very polite, and he joined in all the festivities. He didn't even seem to mind being upstaged by the dramatic arrival of Claire's new puppy, Louie, who viewed Julio as Chew Toy Number One...

James fired up Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard the first day we brought Julio home, and I think we've heard Paul Simon singing that song about five hundred times since then. But it's such a catchy tune, you can't help but chime in every time it plays.







Having Julio around really made me look at things in a whole new light. He reminded us that a little monkeying around is a good thing. And that it's easy to turn any occasion into a special one if you just make up your mind to celebrate. Knowing that we'd share Julio's adventures in the class journal helped us all look at everyday life in a new way.





A few more things we learned from Julio:
1. Enjoy the small moments.
2. Don't forget to take LOTS of pictures.
3. Dole out the hugs generously.
4. You can make friends with just about anybody.
5. Oh, and ALWAYS wear your seatbelt...

Bye-bye, Julio, we'll see you on the monkey bars!

Run, Run, Run

It's true, there were some pretty long faces in class the day the Gingerbread Man ran away. Luckily for the kids, Mr. GM is a reliable correspondent and has been sending postcards from each stop in his extensive travels. There have also been a few sightings, but no one even gets close before he's off and running again... Every day Claire comes home with a new installment of the Continuing Adventures of the Gingerbread Man, and most recently he wrote from Outer Space! His progress is being charted on a big world map in the classroom, and they're running out of space for all his missives. What I would really like to do is climb into his suitcase, but I guess I'd have to catch him first, and he's a very elusive character...

(top photo graphic design by Debra Turner)

I Want to Go Back to Kindergarten

Okay, I have to admit that I’m envious of Claire – she gets to spend her days in a kindergarten class, and it’s made me nostalgic for those halcyon days of my own past. My love for kindergarten is both philosophical and practical.

In a world full of chaos, the kindergarten classroom is its own little universe of structure and order. The hook where you hang your coat and book bag has your name above it, your box of crayons has your name on it, everything has a place and usually gets put back in its place. This almost never happens at our house. If I opened the pen/pencil drawer in the kitchen and actually found a pen or a pencil in there, I’d probably faint.

A kindergarten classroom is so colorful. The walls are covered with groups of tidy layouts in every imaginable color combination; a graphic artist’s dream and nightmare all rolled into one. And so many school and art supplies, I love them! These things encourage creativity – almost everything in kindergarten is an art project, even the math. Drawing and coloring and playing with glue are part of the curriculum. Well, at least we do a lot of this at home, too. Especially on the walls…

Books get priority in kindergarten. This is my idea of heaven. Can you remember getting to spend a big portion of your day with books? The joy of learning to read? Being read to? In kindergarten, it requires no suspension of disbelief to enjoy the stories. That gingerbread man you made in class really did hop out of the oven and run away while you were at recess. And now he’s sending postcards from around the globe!

People are nice. They know that “warm fuzzies” are things you say to make folks feel good, and that “cold pricklies” are better left unsaid. Kindergarten kids know that “please” and “thank you” are important words – they work like magic – and they can’t really ever be overused. It’s okay to talk about your feelings in Kindergarten, and even more amazing, people usually listen. Kindergarten is a place where it’s safe to be yourself – too bad the world isn’t taking notes.

Plus, there’s an extra benefit in the kindergarten classroom: the signs and books and labels all have big enough print that you can read them without putting on your reading glasses first (and believe me, this is big)…

Step By Step

(posted by popular demand and reprinted by permission of Chloé Guillemot, who delivered this commencement speech [chosen in a blind evaluation by district administrators] at Del Mar Middle School Graduation on June 13th, 2007)

Congratulations! You’ve just climbed 100 thousand steps of your life staircase. Great job – only a couple more million to go! But don’t sweat it – we’ve made it this far and I know we can climb higher. Take a look at the people around you. You know everyone, and they know you. We are basically one big family, alike and different in our own ways. For the most part, from the time we learned our ABC’s to the time we learned to factor equations, this Class of 2007 has been together. Having only been here since 4th grade, I don’t know my classmates as much as others do, but I feel just as connected to everyone as those who have been together since Pre-K.

Remembering my first day of school at Bel Aire brings back one of my most treasured memories. It was recess, and I was wearing some spandex pants and an ugly neon colored turtleneck, and I stood alone looking for something to do. I was just about to leave when a girl started dragging me across into the four square cube commanding me to play. Thinking she was a little wacky, I stepped out of the square and looked away shyly. But she insisted that I play with her, and that’s when it hit me – I had just made my first Bel Aire friend. Could it be real? I pinched myself to check, and sure enough, there I was in the middle of a group of people playing four square. Never, in all of the other schools I had attended, did I make a friend as fast as I did at Bel Aire. From that point on, I knew the Reed Union schools would be my favorite schools and a great place to make new friends and meet new people. And just to let you in on a little secret, the girl who dragged me over to play and I thought was such a freak is actually one of my best friends to this day.

But that’s enough about me. Today has been created to commemorate a passage for each one of us, and for the fantastic times we’ve shared together throughout the years. We started out as pieces of string, and were gradually woven together into strong bonds of a beautiful blanket. Each thread tells a different story, but this tapestry we’ve created tells one story that connects us all. It tells us about Reed, where small kids chased each other around playing tag and trying not to get cooties. It tells about our times in Bel Aire, hiding under tables from the bees at lunch. And finally it illustrates our experiences at Del Mar, where we metamorphosed from silly kids into mature people. So much has taken place since the day we were born; yet we are not even half way through our lives. We will be forced to make choices, we will all make mistakes and learn from them, we will endure pain and sadness, and we will experience utter happiness. These things are each a part of life, and we will have to encounter them at some point. But don’t be scared, because these first stages of our lives have prepared us for whatever comes our way. That’s what growing up is about – learning to be independent and how to face challenges on our own. We’re on our way down that bumpy path right now. And wherever life takes us – whatever path we choose to take – will determine who we are.

So, I ask you once more, Class of 2007, to take a look around you. Though high school will come and separate some of us, we will never forget this part of our life. It is from pre-K to eighth grade where we learned to love, cry, laugh, perform, make friends, share special moments, act silly, play, dance, scream, strengthen bonds, and transform into who we are right now. The friends we’ve made will always have a special place in our hearts, no matter how far apart from each other we may find ourselves.

Many years from now, we will have a tremendous appreciation and respect for everything that our teachers taught us. They are the ones who remind us of the Reed School District Mission Statement: “Together we provide our children with extraordinary opportunities to enlighten their minds, inspire their hearts, and strengthen their resolve to positively impact the world.” All of these elements we should be grateful for, however big or small, because they guided us towards being kind, good, helpful, and knowledgeable people. Congratulations, eighth graders! You’ve just climbed 100 thousand steps of your life staircase– only a couple more million to go…