Soccer: Last games of the season

May 7, 2010

The Bolts: Adam is in blue and yellow. Man, look how big some of the kids are!







The Dawgs: Zach is #2, in green.

The Office, Kindergarten style

Zach approached me this morning and said "Mom, you need to come to my office. We have some things to talk about. Your appointment is in five minutes.

Five minutes? Uh oh. I started to panic. Had I not been pulling my weight around the Dyer household? Were my peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches just not cutting it anymore? Did I need to learn new skills like mastering the Wii "I Spy" game or coloring with chalk? Was I being furloughed? Laid off?
"Zach's office door. Only 1 visitor allowed. Everybody allowed except the people I do not want in my office door. Private door. Tomorrow's appointments: 5:58 --- 6:00 ?" Originally he spelled Office Door like this: "Office Dore."

I sat down at the table. He looked at me. He had a pencil and a blank piece of paper. Was he going to take notes? Make me take a test?

"Sign here." The paper was blank. What was I signing? Did I need a lawyer present?

"Mom, I want to talk about Sportsmanship."

Sportsmanship? My mind raced. Zach had his last soccer game on Saturday. Was I unsportsmanlike? I thought back to his game. I didn't think I did anything wrong. I took pictures, clapped at the appropriate time and high-fived him when he scored a goal.

"What is sportsmanship?" he asked. I gave him four concepts of what good sportsmanship meant to me. He wrote down all of them, occasionally asking for clarification and the spelling of words like "positive" and "attitude."

The meeting lasted about three minutes. He thanked me for my time and wrote "please come again." We shook hands.
Not to be outdone, I saw this on Adam's door.
Adam announced he was now taking appointments too. Grandma Agnes was first, then Oma. My turn next. I sat down at his desk, where everything was neatly in its place (eerily similar to that of Scott's desk at work).
"Tell me why Legos are good toys."

A LEGO question? Didn't he know I wasn't versed in the science of Legos? Isn't this question more suited for Scott or Zach? I gave him several examples: they work your brain and teach you to follow directions. They are brightly colored and help with fine motor skills. He wrote all my answers in a Spiderman notebook labeled "meting" notebook. I could tell the notebook was important because he labeled a special place for it: "Meting notebook here" with an arrow. See picture above.

"Show me how to play with this Star Wars spaceship."

A presentation? I wasn't prepared for that! I just had to wing it, speak off the cuff. I started flying the ship around his room, making spaceship and explosion sounds, which is definitely not one of my talents.

"Uh mom?" He interrupted me. "You're flying it backwards."

I looked at the ship, and back at Adam. I'm sunk.

He burst out laughing. Whew! Glad to know he has a sense of humor. He let me start over.

After my demonstration he gave me a grade. C.

A "C"? Wow. Tough crowd. I know I got off to a bad start and my sound effects are not up to par, but I'm willing to practice. I wonder if he knew of any classes I could take about the subject? Or maybe professional development opportunities?

"Watch me. This is how it's done."

He proceeded to make all the cool sounds: rocker booster, machine gun, landing gear, explosions. And while my ship flied consistently at the same altitude, his flew high (jumping onto his bed, even) and really low so it was almost level with the floor. Then it even came in for a slow, steady landing.

I gave him an A.

His meetings with Oma, Grandma Agnes and Scott were quite interesting. He developed his topic based on each person's interest or world of knowledge. For example, he knew Oma preaches the importance of healthy eating habits so his topic for her was "how to eat healthy." Grandma Agnes is almost 98, so her topic? "How to stay alive." Papa didn't have time for his appointment, but I found out it was "how to do the news."

Later in the day, this sign was posted.

Zach's Kindergarten music program

For your viewing pleasure. The first song is "Elephants Have Wrinkles." Zach is wearing jeans (!) in the front. The next song is "Party Animals" and he is on the end in the front row.

You may wonder why I even mention that Zach is wearing jeans...it's a music miracle. I had to remind every day for about three weeks that he would HAVE to wear jeans during his music program. He did, but then said he's never wearing them again. Sigh. I could write an entire blog posts about Zach's clothing dilemmas.

Oh, and this video is not they way I wanted it done, but Windows 7 Movie Maker leaves much to be desired.

If you are getting this in your e-mail inbox and don't see the video below, click here to go to the blog page.

Related posts:
Adam Kindergarten Program: April 29, 2009
Adam's First Grade Program: March 1, 2010

Hip Hop in the mini van

In honor of Mother's Day. Only family makes you a mom. Oh, and I love my mini van.

If you can't see the YouTube video below click here.

When did I become such a MOM?

Believe it or not, I used to be kinda fun. Staying out late dancing and partying with my friends. Making midnight runs to BK or KwikShop. Having an all day movie marathon. Taking off on a road trip with no specific plans. Gettin' jiggy with it.

Now I plan meals and cook dinner, make sack lunches and do laundry. I say things like "Use your eyes," and "That's too loud," and "No, you cannot have a piece of candy." A fun night involves a great TV show and sleeping. Instead of rushing off to school, I am the rushee and spend many a morning finding library books, appropriate socks, and lost shoes before the school bus arrives.

My mind is full of very important information like who wants peanut butter and honey sandwiches, who prefers mustard AND ketchup on his hot dog, who wants their ice cream in a bowl and not a cone, and who likes to sleep with his light dimmed, and not off.

I used to worry about being cool at school, if I was wearing the "right" outfit or who would be my date to the prom. I would strive to have a golden tan in the summer, and have an artificial tan in the winter.

Now I worry about education, bills, swine flu, school bullies, the influence of video games and TV on a young child's brain and if my six year old will EVER learn to tie his shoes. I wear sunscreen and don't care if my legs are white. OK, I do care, but I don't go to the tanning salon anymore. And all that tanning...yeah it's payback time in the form of wrinkles and brown spots.

Gone are the summer lazy days by the pool, going out with friends at night and best of all, no school.

Now summer means yelling "WALK" at the swimming pool, worrying about sunburns, bee stings and drowning, and insisting that yes, you must take a shower EVERY night.

Instead of friendly debates with my friends of which actor is cuter, which car is cooler and which club we should go to that night, I referee arguments about who gets to unload the top rack of the dishwasher, who got the bigger scoop of ice cream, and who gets to brush their teeth first. And my answer is always the same...life isn't fair and it doesn't matter.

I tell my children to go outside and get fresh air and exercise.
I tell them if they watch too much TV, they're brains will turn to mush.
If they tell me they are bored, I give them some entertaining chores to do.
I teach them the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and sodium.
I worry when they eat hard candy.
I make them get white milk at McDonald's instead of chocolate milk.
I make them AT LEAST take a jacket to school (you don't have to wear it.)

I've turned into my mother.

This girl....
20 years later...is now this mom.