Proud to be a Minnow

I have seen the stat that a typical pre-schooler asks 144 questions per day.  Joseph, god bless him, reaches his quota by about 9:15 AM.  I try to nurture his questions to promote his love of learning and curious nature.  But sometimes, I am just worn out.  Read:  I begin to make sh*t up.  (Ask me sometime about the great footballer Silas Bojangles.)

Sometime this past spring, I was with the kids and Abigail was talking about being a GES Gator.  And we talked about the Wildcat mascot where Lar and I teach.  And the Tiger mascot at the middle school.  And the Bobcat mascot for another school. More questions kept coming.  At some point, Joseph wanted to know what animal represented his school.  Ready for the interrogation to be over, I quickly answered with mock surprise "Oh Joseph, don't you know you are a Merit School Minnow?" 
He saved face by saying "Oh yeah, I knew that."

The conversation was forgotten (by me, at least) until last night.  I asked Joseph how he was enjoying his summer break so far and he said it was great, but then sighed and paused and said "I miss being a Minnow though, and seeing Ms. Kelly and Mr. Jay and getting Friday dum-dums."

Alexander Hamilton

I detest 2nd grade homework. Having a kid in school has had quite an effect on my teaching.  I assign so much less homework now that I ever had, and when I do need to assign homework I focus on quality over quantity and try to give my students a week to do it.  This is because homework is a time drain on families.  Abigail gets off the bus at 4 pm.  She brushes her teeth and goes to bed at 7 pm, unless she has karate and it is more like 8 pm.  This means that on a good night, we only have 3 precious hours with her and part of that time must be used for feeding and bathing.  Putting homework in there frustrates her and us.  She wants needs time to decompress, read, play, be outside, be a kid.  We are lucky in the fact that she gets an assignment paper on Mondays and it is due on Fridays so at least we can spread it out and make it fit into our schedule as best as we can, but it still sucks.  

But if weekly 2nd grade homework sucks, one thing worse are the monthly projects.  They are supposed to be month-long activities for a kid to immerse in one particular idea or another.  Not all ideas were terrible.  Write a letter to a far-away friend or relative and have them write a letter back?  Ok.  Make a diorama of an Indian village?   Oh hell no.  What are we learning other than air-dry clay stains hands the color of pueblo?  Ugh, these projects make me want to scream.  And sometimes I do, like this month, when the students had to research a person in history, read about them, make a poster-board about their life, dress like them, and do an oral presentation.  Abigail instantly wanted to do Hamilton.  (I wanted her to do a powerful woman in history since her curriculum is severely lacking them. All they get are Helen Keller and Rosa Parks: women overcoming adversity.)  

Anyhow, back to Hamilton.  We checked some children's books about Hamilton out of the library and read them.  Abigail listened to the soundtrack to the musical with a new ear for the lyrics and asked a lot of questions.  Every time we asked her if she wanted to dress up, she said no, she would do the presentation in her regular clothes.  With our guidance and direction, she make a great timeline on her poster board.  (This is where my screaming came in.  She didn't know how to make a timeline and it took hours of our time to help her measure the board, divide it into sections, and watch her slowly and carefully print the important events she chose.  Hours.  This took hours.  I wasn't screaming at her, I was screaming next to her about her teacher who assigns these supervision-necessary projects that are a time drain on our family every month.  Not my best moment, but I am wise enough of my own defects to be sure parents have cursed me as the teacher of their children for one reason or another, so I'm over it.)

Abigail thought about rapping the first song from Hamilton the musical for her class presentation, but after her sweet voice started "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..." Larry gently suggested that maybe she see if she is allowed to show a Youtube video from the performance instead.  She got permission to do that and chose the Tony performance of the Battle of Yorktown.  And, of course, the night before her presentation, Abigail announced the she did want to dress up after all.  In breathless excitement she said "I want to dress up because I think everyone else is and I don't want to be the only one not dressed up but don't worry I thought of it in my head and I can put together a costume with only stuff we have around the house!"

Abigail in her costume that she put together
the night before her presentation, using her
boots and leggings she has only ever wore once
and the bamboo sword she got at the
Shaloin Temple in China

The next day, Larry got coverage for his class and went across the street to see Abigail's presentation.  He videoed it for me and she did so well!  For 3 minutes she spoke on her topic with confidence and authority, which is a really big deal because she claims that she hates speaking in class.  When she showed the video, her classmates were captivated and shouted that they wanted to see it again or that they wanted to see it on Broadway.  Abigail was the cool kid for the day for having seen Hamilton in NYC already.  She was beaming so much she was practically floating.  

First Day to Last Day of Kindergarten

Nervous to Confident

Junior Thespian

During Mother's Day weekend, Abigail was an actress in our high school's production of The Wizard of Oz.  She played a munchkin and also a flying monkey.  She was a cute munchkin, but she was worth the price of admission (or worth the 10 hour round trip drive, according to my mom) as a flying monkey.

The first night that she was a flying monkey was opening night (as she was too exhausted and scared during the dress rehearsal to stay that late and put on the monkey costume).  While on stage, she missed her cue to stop stabbing the Tin Man and as a result, the Cowardly Lion carried her off stage and improvised a line about using up all of his courage to get rid of that monkey.  It was a hit and although Larry, who played in the pit and served as orchestral director, asked her to do that for all of the shows, Abigail is a rule-follower and hit her cues for the other shows.  

I didn't think I would be all caught up in the "stage momma" kind of thing, and I wasn't much, but wow, did I love hanging with Abbers backstage, sneaking into the house when she was onstage, and then meeting her backstage to help her with her costume change and direct her to makeup.  At first she was so timid and needed me there, but by the 4th show, she was managing it all on her own.  I was SO proud of her; it was a lot of personal growth for my introverted daughter to get to that point in just a few days.  

After her first performance, she was on a huge actor's high and stayed there until she came crashing down after the last performance when she lamented that she was sad because "I'll never get to be a munchkin or flying monkey again."  In the days following the show, she was on what was dubbed "Wizdrawl" walking around the house singing the songs and wishing that she was back onstage!  

Lar and I looked into summer camps at a local theatre where they are producing Annie this summer with children, but they require the kids to be 3rd grade and up.  So in a few years we will see if she is still bit by the acting bug!

Abigail and one of her 2 best friends back stage on opening night.
Joseph was unsure about the situation.
He became much less sure about it once he saw the Wicked Witch!

Abigail and one of her 2 best friends at intermission on Saturday as they
prepare for their performance as flying monkeys.

Our distracted munchkin down center in green top and orange skirt.

One totally adorable thing that Abigail did with her friend is that the 2 of them held
hands through the whole 15 minute munchkin scene.  Many people noticed that.  At least one
asked if they were sisters!  The munchkin children even had a part where they left that stage
walked around and back down the aisles and onto the stage again and these two
cuties held hands the whole time!

Abigail entering from the left of the photo as a flying monkey.

Abigail heading toward the Tin Man to stab him.

Abigail, scaring the living daylights out of the Tin Man

First Day of Junior Kindergarten!!

Our big girl started Junior Kindergarten this morning.  She has been excited for weeks, although we know she was a little nervous because we would find her asleep in our bed in the evening after she was tucked into hers or because she would ask questions about it or because we would say "In Junior Kindergarten, you will have to do X thing by yourself" and she would reply "I don't want to talk about that right now."  But we also know she was excited because she has been asking "do I go to school today??" for the past few weeks and when we drive past the building in the car, she always wants to point it out and have us stop and drive around the back to see the playground things.  I can't wait until she gets home and we find out how she does!

(And let me tell you, next week, when she gets to ride on her first bus and go on her first field trip, when someone else is driving my baby around in a bus on a field trip away from school everyone will need to be asking me how  I  am doing!!!)