Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Where has all the time gone?




Last week I walked my 8 year-old into his second grade classroom for the first time (and the last, mind you; I'm required to drop him off at the curb after the first day!). Will someone please tell me when he got to be this big? Wasn't it just yesterday when I went to meet his Mothers Day Out teachers at SCC?

He was just two then, but I knew he was bright. He had learned all of his letters by sight the previous January, and when I went to his little Christmas program, he knew ALL of the words to Jingle Bells, even the "dashing through the snow" part! He had a small aversion to getting his hands dirty that year, but made it through making the painted handprint Thanksgiving turkey. I remember Nanny and Gramps driving all the way for the end-of the year little spring presentation and he pretty much picked his nose during all three songs!

When I took him to FUMC to tour his new preschool when he was three, he identified all the letters he saw around the room immediately for the director. (I wasn't proud or anything!) Even though his best buddy always had fifteen pieces of art work in her cubby at the end of the day and he only had 1 (that was required!), I knew he was going to be okay. Really, how important is it that he make a marshmallow snowman?! There was nothing cuter than him in his shepherd costume at the Christmas program that year. (Nana and I nearly burst into tears when he came walking out!)

The next year we increased his time from 2 half days to 2 full days and 1 half day. He now took his lunchbox and his nap mat. What a big boy he was walking in with all of his gear. Even though, Miss D said that he had trouble with scissors/cutting and still didn't like crafts all that much, she made him a reading buddy and he "read" to the 2 year-olds once a week! I will never forget he and Carly doing the "Turkey in the Straw" dance on stage at the FUMC auction that year.--They were the hit of the show!

When he was five, it was a whole new ballgame...we had moved to Owasso and he was in pre-k. He was already reading everything in sight, but we began to notice something else...his memory! He could tell us all of the birthdays of all his classmates. He knew exactly which sport/team pennant he had earned in the exact order that he had earned it (he has almost 200!). Not only was he continuing to grow cognitively, we saw his social and leadership skills begin to flourish. Oh, and he was obsessed with Brett Favre. Miss Patrick said that Joshua taught her all about the Owasso Rams and the Green Bay Packers that year!

Yep, we did it to him again!--He started a new school for first grade. We moved again! At age 6, his Union kindergarden teacher told us that she didn't think there was anything that they were going to cover that year academically that he hadn't already mastered. As his parents and as educators, we were not concerned with that aspect of Joshua at that point. We wanted him to grow in his relationships, self-confidence, and citizenship. What a tremendous year he had! He made lots of great friends, played flag football, basketball,and tee-ball and became such a secure little boy. He also got to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with his daddy in Canton, Ohio that year. He missed a day of school, but memories that will last a lifetime!

For the first time in three years, he started school at the same place! He entered first grade knowing the building, the administrators and lots of the teachers already. He was delighted with his new teacher and even though he continued his pattern of going to the enrichment specialist once a week for reading, he was challenged in all areas. He loved learning about many areas in science and social studies, never missed a word on a single spelling test (even his special challenge words!), learned to tell time, count money and write with little hooks on all his letters. Even better, he still claimed to be the fastest kid in the first grade and had lots of friends to sit by at lunch and play with at recess. Flag football and basketball continued to make him happy, and he hit several homeruns in coach pitch ball too!

All three years previous he has looked forward to school starting and been excited to go, but a little anxious the day of its arrival. This year (partly due to looping), he was very calm. He LOVES his teacher and his classmates and is confident in his ability to do well in school. I am so thankful for the educational experience that he has had so far and the role it has had in making him into the young man that is now a second grader. Unlike at home, he seems not to melt down in frustration if he can't do something exactly right the first time. It is a place where he can shine in his strengths and better his weaknesses. He even has decided that he really likes having me up there volunteering a lot! Tackle football has started and it's a whole new uncertain journey, but he is taking it in stride, and we are excited to see how he likes it and does. (I think he's even deciding that his daddy actually knows a little bit about football!)

Even though physically he has changed drastically since that first day of MDO when he was two, and emotionally he is so much stronger now that he is 8, he still gives me great big hugs at night and tells me that he loves me "to the moon and back". I couldn't be more proud of that big boy. "I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."