So long, farewell (graduation stories)

It was either a lifetime ago or maybe just yesterday, I graduated from the primary program at my Montessori school in Austin. The celebration and ceremonies lasted throughout the week. 

Early in the week, our class presented our cultural challenge. I recited Hickory Dickory Dock. There was a magic show, some jokes, more jokes, dancing, a cello performance, and the traditional singing of So Long, Farewell to bid us graduates goodbye. I was paired with my dearest friend for our departure. Someone please pass a box of kleenex around to the parents. The children love this farewell song, until it sinks in that it means we will never be together like this again. 

Now that I have moved on, we don't really need to talk about how not smoothly graduation week went. Despite the 23 years of tradition, plans were changed. Parents were uninvited. Then re-invited. Then days changed. times changed. (so not Montessori)

The week was darkened by the fact that 38.8% of my peers who were eligible to graduate were retained even though they had each completed three years of a Montessori program. Some children didn't even know they'd be staying behind in primary until the rest of us starting preparing for graduation celebrations. It was sad, confusing, and unfair - to the students and the parents.

At our graduation ceremony, each graduate was introduced. Our guide said three words about us - beginning with the first letter of our first name. 

ambidextrous. affectionate. analytical. 

I received my roses, my diploma, and the coveted key to the universe. 

And some ice cream. 

On the last day of school, I was the first to arrive. just like on the first day of school. just like most days. (Yes, I wore the same shirt two days in a row. It was done in the name of school pride.)  

On the last day, the primary students were included in the school-wide Gates of Life graduation after being told we wouldn't be. Many students who have graduated from the school over the past 23 years attend to form the gates through which the new graduates run. I plan to return to Austin to help my friends graduate from upper elementary in grade 6. Is that really only five years from now?

After Gates of Life, we enjoyed a picnic on our beautiful playground. That playground is the best part of the school, of any school anywhere: twelve acres of largely undeveloped land and endless opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. Sure, we found some black widows and there were scorpions and snakes (just like home!) but those become excellent lessons.  

I left the picnic to spend my last time in the primary classroom and commit everything to memory. the reading shelf. the science shelf. my water cup. the cozy reading corner. the geometric solids.  

So long, farewell, auch wiedersehen, good night.
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.

butterfly

This fat little baby, who isn't so little or fat anymore, started back in swimming lessons today.

Earlier in the week, we went to the pool for a swim assessment. (What's the point? I am awesome.) The assessment showed that I have sloppy freestyle form. but so fast. Fantastic with breaststroke and backstroke.

Where I really shine is butterfly.
I should also remind my readers that I just turned six.

I am signed up in a class that should have a total of four children but I am the only one enrolled - or maybe the children are just too lazy to get to the pool early in the morning. So I got a private lesson! A whole session of intensive butterfly instruction!

Hey, Bruce Robertson, with my Canadian citizenship paperwork in hand, I am coming after your record as Canada's best butterfly guy ever.

ladybird

This really is the best (only tolerable) time of year in Texas when the wildflowers are in full bloom and we can stay outside playing soccer late into the evening without catching on fire.

I am not even going to try to describe what it is like to drive up MoPac and see the median overflowing with bluebonnets. 

Not last week but the week before, I went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. twice! 

My mom had an afternoon conference at my school - the last one with me as a primary student. So we thought three hours in the garden, en route to school, would give us plenty of time. (Wrong, I would've stayed all day.) It was my first time visiting since the Luci and Ian Family Garden opened. And the best feature is the exercise equipment right there in the meadow. They have exercise bikes and ellipticals and what else? bench press. It was the best thing we'd ever seen and we had to wonder why we didn't know about that and why we don't have a annual membership and go there every single day. 

Disclaimer: in the photo above, I am not sour. It was just really bright.

I have also been keeping close track of what is growing in my own yard. (see below)

Last year, the Easter bunny brought me a pack of wildflower seeds to cover 100 square feet of ground. I scattered them immediately throughout the front yard. I did get two bluebonnets and a million flowers that I cannot identify.

narrowly escaping stitches

On Wednesday of last week, my mom received a phone call from my frantic teacher saying that I needed to be picked up from school immediately because I fell and needed stitches. Her panic wasn't entirely because of the blood. She has 29 years of classroom experience and she is a mother of a leukemia survivor so she has seen more than her share of blood and gore and blood and more gore. She was hysterical because, by her own admission, she wasn't supervising us boys closely enough. And, as she explained, she knew our game was rough but the accident occurred when some of the other younger children were being dismissed and she couldn't/didn't intervene.

When we moved to the new campus, there was more flexibility for younger children to stay all day. That sounds good but it sure adds an element of chaos and sometimes my mom and I talk about how hard it must be to keep track of children scattering everywhere at noon: some go to the rainbow room, some go for a nap while others go home and then there are some of us who stay in the classroom for an afternoon of academics. How do you not lose children? even one child!

My mom prepared to get me from school . . . telling the teacher that it would take 45 minutes to get there. Just as my mom was getting to school, the teacher called back to say maybe just maybe stitches were not needed.

My chin was cleaned up nicely by the time my mom got there so we decided to spend our stitches money on Lego. Best idea ever and I will take credit for that!

At bedtime, it seemed like maybe I should have had stitches. Since my cut was under my chin, it re-opened often and kept bleeding and weeping. Now, I will probably be left with a gouge of a scar in my chin.

Halloween

I really wish I could say that it was the changing weather that helped put me in the mood for Halloween. Most days, though, have still been a bit on the way too warm side. We forged ahead anyhow with our Halloween preparations . . . mostly because it is just one more stop on the way to Christmas. (Yes, I have my calendar marked so I can tell you exactly how many more days until Christmas.) 

Since it has been so hot, I could not buy/carve my pumpkin too far in advance. This is the pumpkin that I agonized over choosing, based on the size, relative smoothness, and roundness of its face. I had the honor of scooping all of the guts out. by hand. This job, I later told my dad, was the worst part of my day - though I didn't complain at all while I was doing it. It took me two tries to draw the pumpkin face as cute as I wanted it to be. We could be brothers! 

Scooping the guts out was only made all the more challenging because my mom insisted that I remove every last seed so that we could roast them. We used a different recipe this year that happens to involve melted butter. (Note: up up up the amount of butter and salt.) These are the toastiest gems of buttery goodness that you could hope to eat.

At long last, it was Halloween night. We went trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood that has wide, safe, and brightly lit streets. I walked and walked for almost two hours.

This was my haul. I forgot to mention that I already had a mountain of candy (not shown) from the previous weekend when we went tick-or-treating at the Galleria Halloween party.

Basically, I only like Reese's. We have some baking projects planned for my excess candy of the non-Reese's variety.

To wrap up our Halloween celebrations, I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread yesterday.

fall camping trip

Dr. Maria Montessori believed nature to be a source inspiration for learning. She observed that children tend to be fascinated with the natural world, and encouraged educators to get children out into nature, rather than confining them inside the classroom walls.

And so off my dad and I went on the school's fall campout.  

The academic rigor of my third and final year in the primary program is making this school year pass so quickly. That, and I am exhausted.

I have made excellent progress in every subject area. I had already mastered reading, of course, but I am working on my spelling (obsessively, all day and all night) and I even drew a black widow spider - complete with a frowny face. The guideline for each day is that students must choose one reading work, one math work, and one science work . . . and don't forget the art!

new school year

The start of my school year was delayed by one week and, I suppose, we did need those extra days to gather everything I needed and to label it all. My supplies list isn't anything like what one needs to buy for public school. Instead of pencils, crayons, and paper, I need cloth napkins, a napkin ring, a hand towel with a loop of a certain size, boots, a plant in a 6" clay pot, and the list goes on and on and on. Having a seamstress on call for custom orders (oh hi Trinity) makes life so much easier (and I have really cute things).

We also volunteered to prepare materials for my class. We spent the last week of summer cutting up a decade+ of National Geographic and Martha Stewart Living magazines to find pictures of vertebrates and invertebrates. We thought we were going to really fall short on the mollusks until we found the December 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living. 

Since I am now a lunch child, I've had to write grocery lists, and make choices from my mom's flowcharts that were devised to ensure my lunches would be perfectly balanced while adhering to my school's restrictions. Luckily, nuts are not banned.

We finished all of our preparations just in time to go to Verde's for 4:00 dinner. Normally, Verde's is the ideal place to celebrate birthdays, school starting or finishing, or anything really. I can run around and play football while my parents eat. On this day, it happened to be more than 100 degrees and I was a grouch. (That's an understatement.) I ordered this cake and then complained about it profusely. I was sound asleep for the night by 7:00. 

I woke up early and very happy. I got ready quickly and independently. And look how perfect my hair is! The only glitch in the morning is that we had no granola. (Who runs out of granola? geeeeesh.)

I was the first student to arrive at school. This allowed me the opportunity to look around. My campus is 12 acres of awesome.

I was even invited to try out the playground yard while I waited for my friends to arrive. This contraption is my mom's favorite feature: baking sheets/pans and utensils attached to a wall for making some noise!

Being a lunch child is the most exhausting thing ever. I turned sour (another understatement) in the evening but, again, was sound asleep around 7:00. I am going to have to adjust my afternoon/evening routine to get everything done before I turn into a monster.