This was taken in the bathtub of the insane hotel suite we had this past weekend. It was right out of a 70’s movie set in Vegas. There are steps that lead up to the tub. It is obvious we weren’t in Vegas (but at a casino in Indiana) as these “swanky” over the top tubs have long since gone out of style. The kids couldn’t get enough of the bathtub. I’ll be saving this photo for their teen years.
Is it just me, or is a “formal” graduation from preschool with caps and gown a bit over the top? Do 4 and 5-year-olds really need to walk across the stage as pomp and circumstance plays and they are handed their diploma.
As a parent, I am so happy my kids school doesn’t have any graduation until 8th grade. I get the want/need/desire to celebrate a transition to a new school, but isn’t there a better way?
Couldn’t the kids do a final project presentation to their families illustrating what they had learned?
As an educator, I think celebrations are important. But I also think they should be reserved for those seminal moments and I’m sorry to say I don’t think that finishing preschool is seminal.
I wish we focused more on what the kids learned and experienced then simply celebrating that they finished.
It just reinforces that too often our schools focus on the wrong thing–the result as opposed to the process.
“But mom, I can find one of my short sweaters.”
“They are probably in the laundry”
“THEY HAVE BEEN THERE LIKE 100 YEARS!” says the 5-year-old in her whiniest voice with the tears welling up in her puppy dog eyes.
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“Mom, where is my _______(crumpled up piece of paper with 6 other crumpled pieces of colored paper glued to it, the leaf I found outside to give to you, or any other completely random thing).”
“I don’t know. I might have thrown it away.”
“BUT MOM THAT WAS MY MOST SPECIALEST THING EVER.” cries the 5-year-old about EVERYTHING.
Mark my words–she just might make it onto Hoarders.
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There is a lot of drama at our house and not just from our 5-year-old. Noah generates his fair share of drama, but I am working to respect his privacy a bit (not completely) but enough. He doesn’t really know much about this site, but does know that sometimes I write stuff other people see.
There are a lot of tears (many fake) and a lot of dramatization of EVERYTHING.
So much is made into an over the top big deal. It is hard not to laugh when your 5-year-old is having a fit because her hair isn’t right. Seriously? Does she have any idea that it’s only going to get worse as she grows older. Or when she also throws a fit because the one thing she wants to wear (regardless of the closet full of other stuff) is dirty and has been for “LIKE 100 YEARS. DON’T YOU EVER DO LAUNDRY.” Oh you just wait little princess–you are getting to the age when you can do your own laundry to some degree.
It’s hard to not just laugh when you 6 1/2-year-old sits on the couch and whines “I am cold” over and over. I know he wants a blanket–but seriously, ask for one and don’t get mad when I giggle a little (so that I don’t stab anyone).
When they are being dramatic in that annoying, I want to punch someone way, they are being dramatic in the “Listen to our band” way. Which is incredibly cute. They love to perform and put on shows. I remember doing that as a kids and I love watching them. But then Zoë will launch into her solo. IT GOES ON FOREVER. FOREVER. She will sing the same lyrics over and over and over and over and over and over and over while she twirls and twirls and twirls and twirls. You get the idea right. She has yet to learn that you leave your audience clamoring for more–not make them want to scream ENOUGH ALREADY. But I love that they like to perform and that they are outgoing enough to want EVERYONE to WATCH ME!!!!
The school they are at really fosters this creative side and I am happy for that. Mostly :).
There is rarely a dull moment at our house and if there is I have to wonder what the heck is happening.
This past weekend on our “vacation” (more about that later), I noticed that one of Zoë’s bottom teeth looked crooked. I asked her to come over so I could feel her tooth. I knew before I touched it that is was loose and it looked pretty loose. All I kept thinking the whole time was Please don’t let this tooth be looser than Noah’s. Please. Please. Please.
Well, of course it is looser than Noah’s. I mean seriously? Cant this just work out right. Noah has been waiting to lose a tooth since his classmates started losing teeth in kindergarten. All of the girls in Noah’s class have lost teeth and now a couple of the boys in his class have. It’s so hard to be one of the younger kids in class and hitting many of the marks later than your classmates. Now his sister (who is 19-months younger) is getting ready to surpass him.
Of course, Noah was frustrated and started to cry a little. Bill, finally called him over and said that it just meant that his teeth were stronger.
I can’t imagine how it must feel for my sensitive, perfectionist child to have his sister do something before him. She did a flip off the diving board before he did–when he did his (right after) his was better and that saved his feelings.
Zoë’s tooth is still looser than Noah’s (I keep telling him is isn’t–parenting for the win). I am certain hers is going to fall out first–and I don’t know what it going to happen when it happens the way I think it will. Noah suggested we tape it down–so his can fall out first.
If only it was that easy.
Tooth Fairy Generosity (aka–insanity)
So, Noah has his first loose tooth. He has been waiting, not-so-patiently I might add, for this day. The look on his face when he came and told me he thought his tooth was loose we priceless. Most of the girls in his class have already lost lots of teeth. They have one boy in their class who is on the older side (that’s a nice way of saying it right?) who has lost like 7 or 8 teeth, but none of the other boys Noah’s age have. So, it’s very exciting.
The tooth is just wiggly–and probably 3 or so weeks away from being ready to really fall out–but this didn’t stop conversations about the tooth fairy. I am in no real way stingy. So when we were all talking on family vacation about the Tooth Fairy and what she brings, I thought $3 for your first tooth and $1 for each tooth after. That seemed reasonable, right? Okay, so now I know that it isn’t.
The day after vacation I got the following text from my brother informing me that the going rate for a tooth is $3.00.
So, I thought $3 isn’t so bad. It seems a bit crazy, but you certainly can’t buy anything with a $1 like you used to. I still remember penny candy and going to the local Ben Franklin and being able to get a bag of candy for $1 and it was a lot–now? Not so much.
I resigned myself that I’d be shelling out about $60 over the next few years for teeth that have fallen out of my son’s mouth.
At dinner the other night, Noah happily declared, “I know how much the tooth fairy leaves!!”
“How much?”
“TEN DOLLARS”
Oh pardon me as I spit out my wine all over the table. “What?”
“Ten Dollars, Mom. The tooth fairy brings TEN DOLLARS.”
Are you kidding me? These aren’t the first kids in the world to lose teeth. Ten bucks for a tooth. So, now. I have to leave Ten Dollars for my kids first tooth. Then who the hell knows. I am still flabbergasted that $10 is actually what the going rate seems to be in the world of private school. I know I shouldn’t be surprised. For one of Noah’s classmates birthday’s-the parents of said child had an ice cream truck come to school.
So, what does the tooth fairy leave in your house?
Embracing Imperfection 