Brooklyn’s Last Month of Kindergarten & Reflections on the Year

Before we knew it, it was May and almost time for summer break! Brooklyn had a busy last month of school, and it really flew by. Here are the highlights:

May 2nd – big group hug to celebrate one of the kids adding their name to the “Sight Word Wall” (meaning they had learned all 50 sight words!). I thought this was so sweet!

May 13th was Mill Creek’s kindergarten celebration, and it was held in the auditorium at James Clemens High School. We dropped Brooklyn off with her class before finding our seats…

The girls were supposed to wear their nicest dress, and the boys were supposed to wear white dress shirts and black pants. The teachers provided the headbands and bow ties for the kids to wear.

I am making a mental note to get there WHEN THE DOORS OPEN next time around when Savannah is in kindergarten. I should have known it would be packed, but we got there 30 minutes early and we still had to sit in the upper balcony…

This is all 10 kindergarten classes at Mill Creek…I think it was about 180 kids or so. Brooklyn is on the right side standing on the floor. In this picture, she is hiding behind another girl.

Do you see her with the yellow hair bow? :) The kids all did great! They had been practicing for weeks, so they had worked hard to get ready.

Brooklyn was limited in what hand motions she could do with her arm in a sling, but she never complained. She still had fun. I’ve been SO proud of her great attitude since she broke her arm. She hasn’t felt sorry for herself or complained much at all. She is a good example for me!

I think they sang 4 or 5 songs in total. It was so cute watching all the kids singing and dancing. After the performance, they showed a slideshow with pictures from all the kindergarten classes. I was proud of myself for making it through the whole thing without crying! ;)

We found Jacob, one of Brooklyn’s friends from our neighborhood, after the show and had to get a quick picture :)

Our sweet, big girl!!

We were glad that Paw and Rae Rae could be there…

…and Cici too!

Little sisters were also in attendance, but didn’t cooperate for pictures ;)

It was a great night celebrating Brooklyn’s kindergarten year!

Field Day was Wednesday, May 15th. I knew from the list of activities that Brooklyn probably wouldn’t be able to do much at all, unfortunately. I debated whether or not to just keep her home rather than sending her to school that day, but Brooklyn insisted that she still wanted to go.

The weather was nice during the morning, and Brooklyn said she had a great time. She was able to do one activity (the sponge race). Mrs. Patterson said she was walking beside her the whole time reminding her not to run ;) The rest of the time, Brooklyn had to just stand and watch her classmates participate. I was so proud of her for her good attitude! She said during the first activity she was a little sad because she couldn’t participate, but after that, she said she had fun and it was even better than doing things herself because she got to watch her friends have fun. What a big girl and a mature attitude!

She did get to eat a snow cone at the end, so that was fun of course! By the time I got there for my volunteer slot, it had started to rain, so I didn’t really get to see or help with much. They ended up sending everyone inside early and canceling the rest of the field day activities.

Hopefully next year’s field day will have better weather!

Brooklyn’s class got to watch the first grade sight word parade on Monday, May 20th. The Gilstraps were there to watch Ellie Carver, and Marilyn texted me this picture of Brooklyn :)

The kindergarten end-of-the-year party was later that same day. All of the classes did one big “party” outside in a field behind the school. There were lots of outdoor activities, and the kids were able to just run free and play for the hour.

Brooklyn found several things she was able to do that didn’t involve running or breaking any of Dr. Lawley’s rules (ha!), so she had a fun time!

Bubbles!

She spent a long time tossing bean bags…

…and “playing golf” with Christian and Lawrence, two of her friends in Mrs. Patterson’s class.

The end-of-the-year party was a nice change from the Christmas party, which required a lot more planning and coordinating from the parents. This was low key and easy all around, and the kids had a blast! I had to get a picture of Brooklyn with Mrs. Patterson before the morning was over :)

Mrs. Patterson was so sweet to give me this end of the year gift after the party for helping out as one of the room moms. It was a mini bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes and a jar of lifesaver mints :)

The cake was delicious! If Nothing Bundt Cakes was closer to our house, I’m sure I would have already found a good excuse to go buy another one ;)

She also made all of the kids a “survival kit for life” packed inside a monogrammed water bottle. I thought it was a cute idea, and Brooklyn has loved drinking out of her water bottle this summer.

Good things for everyone to remember, not just kids!

Brooklyn gave this homemade card to Mrs. Patterson during the last week of school. It says: “Hi Ms. Patterson. I love you. Make sure to be the best teacher in the world. I hope you have a great summer break. I love you this much.” I’m sure Mrs. Patterson loved it!

Brooklyn’s last day of school was Thursday, May 23rd…

It was exciting and a little sad all wrapped up together! Last day of kindergarten ever!

The kids were so excited when they walked out of the building on their last day! It was a half day, so we had some fun planned to celebrate…

Alison offered to have a last day of school party at her house, and the girls and our neighborhood friends all had a blast playing with water guns and splashing in the pool.

We ate lunch over there too…

It was a fun way to celebrate the start of summer break!

Since this was our very first year of having a child in school, I thought it might be fun to reflect on what I personally have learned over the last year. It was a new experience for all of us, and in some ways, I feel like I learned as much as Brooklyn did!

Things I Learned During Brooklyn’s First Year of School:

People say that once your kids start school, the years really fly by. And I can see how that is so true. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were taking Brooklyn to school for the first day of kindergarten, and now we are just a few days away from her starting first grade. I think it’s because the days just all run together. It’s a similar routine every day. Get Brooklyn ready for school. Take care of the other girls during the school day/run errands. Pick up Brooklyn from school. Do homework. Eat supper. Pack her lunch for the next day. Baths. Bedtime routine. Go to bed and do it all over again the next day. The weeks fly by, and before you know it, the year is already over. Then, the summer flies by, and it’s time for another school year!
Public school is definitely NOT free. That’s another phrase I’ve heard many times over the years. Sure, we didn’t pay an annual tuition like we would at a private school, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t pay for anything. The fundraisers…whew. It seemed like every time we turned around, Brooklyn was bringing home information about a new fundraiser. I always felt obligated to contribute at least a little something, but it definitely adds up. Then you throw in book fairs, extra supplies for the classroom throughout the year, teacher appreciation gifts, and chipping in for class parties, and you realize that you might need to put “school expenses” in the budget as its own category ;) I can’t even imagine what it will be like with multiple kids in school! (Not trying to complain…I am amazed at what the schools are able to do with such a small budget, and I know they can always use extra donations and money. I’m just saying it was eye-opening to experience it first hand this year as a parent!).
Having one child in school doesn’t mean you are automatically less busy. In many ways, I feel like I was just as busy during the school year as I was before Brooklyn started school. I think there was definitely less drama and fighting during school hours—there was one less kid to add to the chaos! But overall, I don’t really feel like it was just this amazing change with a whole bunch of new free time. Maybe that comes when you have multiple kids in school? I’ll have to re-evaluate that in a couple of years ;)
Starting school means a whole new schedule for everybody. It was a big awakening last year when the school year started, and I realized that I would now consider “sleeping in” to be anything past 6:30 AM. I’ve never been a late sleeper, but I don’t routinely get out of bed that early unless I have to. I’m assuming it will just be earlier and earlier once we have multiple kids to get ready and out the door by 7:10 AM. Afternoons were also interesting because afternoon pickup fell right in the middle of normal nap time/quiet time for Savannah. Most of the time, she didn’t fall asleep, but occasionally I would have to wake her up to go pick up Brooklyn. Same case for Abigail. We just had to adjust things to work around afternoon pickup, and it took some time to work the kinks out. There were still days even toward the end of the school year where Savannah or Abigail’s nap got interrupted, and the rest of the day was soured as a result. But, for the most part, they did a good job being flexible, and we made it work. It just took some time to get used to a new routine that affected the whole family, not just Brooklyn.
Having the oldest child at school brings new opportunities for younger siblings. One benefit of Brooklyn going to school was that it gave Savannah a chance to be the “big sister in charge” during the day. Savannah isn’t very assertive (although she is getting better in that area), so Brooklyn is typically the boss when she’s home. But when Brooklyn was at school, Savannah got to make all the decisions – what TV show to watch, what books to read, what games to play, etc. I think she really enjoyed that, and it was a good opportunity for her. At the same time, I could definitely tell that Savannah missed Brooklyn during the school day. She was always excited to see Brooklyn after school, and they usually played together pretty nicely in the afternoons. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. I think they appreciated each other more when their time together was limited! Savannah also developed a special bond with Abigail during the school year and became almost like a little mommy to Abigail. She was always making sure Abigail had her paci or teething ring when she was crying. She brought her toys and books, pushed her around on the Little Tikes car, and wanted to be the one to open Abigail’s door when she woke up in the morning. It was fun to see their relationship blossom over the year.
Teachers are truly amazing people. As a child, you don’t really understand what your teachers put into the school year–all the time and energy they devote to their kids. I know I didn’t really get it when I was a kid myself. But my eyes have definitely been opened this year. I don’t know how teachers do it. I can’t imagine trying to teach 18 kindergartners every day for an entire school year and how exhausting it must be. I have definitely gained an appreciation for teachers on a whole new level and how much patience and energy it must take to do the job well.
It’s incredible how much your child will learn and grow over the year. Brooklyn learned SO much over the course of the year. She loved math and practicing her sight words. She is reading all by herself now and has been for months—it’s amazing considering that she wasn’t even writing all of her letters correctly at the beginning of the school year. She also learned things like how to go through the lunch line, check out a library book, open a milk carton, and find her way around a huge school without help. Brooklyn got along well with just about everyone in her class and was always talking about her BFFs…haha. She listened and obeyed Mrs. Patterson very well and only “clipped down” a couple of times over the whole year (for talking too much…haha). It was a great year for Brooklyn, and I’m so glad!!