First Day of Middle School....

Tuesday, Ben FINALLY started school.  First day of sixth grade... first day of middle school.

He was nervous. Even though he is in the same school as last year, the middle school is different. They have different classrooms and teachers and there are lots of expectations and LOTS to keep track of.

Check out this schedule!

Every single day is different... and then it changes every other week. It's a lot to remember. I hope he can get in a good routine with it all or he will never have what he needs! This is where I am thankful he is in such a small school and where I feared he would really get lost in the shuffle in the bigger school most of his JES friends went to.

The first day, he came home overwhelmed and not so happy. He said middle school was super serious and he was afraid he was going to forget things. The second day was better. He LOVES math and English, so far. I also think he's going to end up loving Tech and Life Science. And, while he thinks Ancient Civilizations is going to be boring, I have been getting emails from his teacher that suggest otherwise. He is the only teacher to send emails out so far and they are SO funny. Seems like he is really going to make an effort to make it fun and engaging for the kids.

He's still thinking about whether he wants to join the Math Club (which is run by the teacher mentioned above!). I hope he does it. Most of his friends were also invited, and I think he'll really enjoy it.

Anyway, so far, so good. He has forgotten his lunch box once, and a history homework... and there is a snafu with his gym uniform and he left his tennis shoes at school on Thursday...  LOL... but all in all, I'm optimistic for a good year. ;)

Last Day of Fifth Grade….

Ben's last day of school was Friday. It was anti-climactic. They got out at like 10:30. LOL.

He's excited to be free earlier than everyone else, though I'm not sure why. With Jonathan still at camp for another week and Simon still in school for two more, there's really not much we can do.

I really can't get over how quickly elementary school flew by. :(

Blue shirt picture is the first day of fifth grade, red shirt is the last day.

Last pic is his first day of kindergarten. (cry)

I asked him to rate his fifth grade year on a scale of 1-10, 1 being awful, 10 being perfect. He said "From the time I switched schools to now, I'd give it  a 9.5, before that, I'd give it a 5.5." LOL.

I'm glad we made the move. It's nice to know he's staying where he is next year rather than starting at a huge middle school. We definitely made the right choice for him. I'm not sure what the future holds school-wise after 8th grade for him or what it holds for the other two as they head to middle school, but for Ben, right now, this was the right decision. He has made some nice friends and is getting more involved next year. He plans on playing basketball and tennis, neither of which he would have been able to do at the school level if we hadn't moved him. I think this will be fantastic for him.

He finished the year, I think, with four As and two Bs. (the report card gets mailed in a week or two, but that's what the online gradebook says) Overall, a successful year with lots of growth and maturing.

Onward to middle school! (!!!!???!!!)

They Are Not Messing Around...

New school does NOT play around with homework… this is an example of what I mean when I tell people that the work there is not HARDER than bcps… in many cases, the work itself is actually easier… but the expectations are sky high. (which is great… but yikes… snow day work… LOL…)

Learning Experience….

Today, Ben has his first BIG test since being at his new school.  It's a reading test on the book they just finished, Fever 1793.  The teacher sent home all kinds of studying information… they even had to fill out this super detailed sheet about HOW they were planning on studying.

They have a folder with all their papers from the unit that they have to turn in today with the test. Discovered he was supposed to be doing this in science too… thankfully, I've only tossed a few graded papers. Unfortunately, no one mentioned this folder thing to Ben (or me).   (mid-year start issues again…people assume you know things.) So he only has like maybe 3/4 of the reading papers. Worse, several of them are from before he started, so they aren't completed. I'm a little irritated that this wasn't something anyone bothered to tell us (to keep everything in this folder) and the incomplete papers would have taken him hours and hours to finish, so I didn't make him do them. :\  He'll probably get marked down substantially but so be it. It wasn't fair to him. I really need to have a conference with his teachers to get on the same page… they are very hard to communicate with via email in that they don't respond… like EVER.  They told me early on that they have issues with mail going to spam, so I never know if they got it and didn't respond or if they never got it. Hence, REALLY need a face-to-face.

Anyway, so they were supposed to study. Ben basically didn't. He had a basketball game last night and the night before, he spent almost two hours on other homework. I tried to get him to at least look over it last night before basketball, but he said he feels confident in the material. I am apt to believe him… he has gotten As on every quiz he has taken so far and hasn't done anything except go to class, do the homework, and read the story. I considered pushing the matter to enforce good habits, but decided to use this as a learning experience. If he aces the test (which he very well might), then great, he knows himself and when he needs to study. If he doesn't, well, then, next time, he'll listen to me.

We made a deal that if he gets a low B or lower, we study together next time.  We shall see!

Second First Day of Fifth Grade....

:)

He was a little nervous this morning, but mostly excited! He talked my ear off all the way to school. I walked him in because they had wanted him to get there a few minutes early to get his things situated. They welcomed him with smiles and I left him in good hands. He was SO happy. Can't wait to pick him up today and hear how it went!

Update....

In the time since my last post --
In no particular order...

There was an ice storm. We didn't lose power, thankfully. Still, ice is awful.

Simon had a med check at the pediatrician, which is essentially an extra well-visit. So for record-keeping purposes -- he was 54 pounds and 48-1/2 inches. He is starting to grow taller, but not heavier... he looks like he has been stretched out!

Report cards came home.... Ben's was stellar, Simon's was kind of worthless and didn't communicate a whole lot (except for the comments, which were helpful, detailed and very good!), which is why I was glad I had a conference with his teacher, at her request. She reports he is doing SO well these days. She had samples of his work all laid out for me to see and it's really amazing how far he has come. He gets pulled for tests so he can take them with minimal distractions and she says he LOVES this. Two of his good friends go too and apparently they are the envy of their classmates. She says he is a great reader and has very high-level comprehension. (?!) She also said is amazed by the ways in which he goes about solving math problems. Now, if we could only get his desk organized and get him to  stay consistent with getting right to work in class. LOL.  VERY positive conference though! Proud of him!

This is one of his recent papers. The teacher was so excited about it, she brought me a copy after school one day while I was waiting to get the boys. I love that his teacher is as proud of him as I am. :)

I came down with what started out as a chest cold type thing and turned into what I'm fairly sure was the downsized, flu-shot version of the flu. Oddly, no one else got it.  I was okay a couple days later, but am still ultra-tired and this was over a week ago!

Tom left town for a meeting in Florida. No surprise that he got snowed in there... or rather, snowed OUT of here.

It was just the kids and me Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday. The day he came home, I went to bed at 6p.m.

We have had a lot of fun with this last snow... it was excellent sledding snow and the boys have been in and out. Only positive I have found so far.

I found this one in the side yard saying, "Mommy! The snow won't let me go!!!" It was over a foot and he had a hard time walking. Over the course of a few days, we carved out a path for him to walk to the sledding hill and back.  LOL!

Ben had a meds check/well visit at the pediatrician two days after Simon. He is 49 inches tall and weighs 49-1/2 pounds. Like Simon, he also grew heightwise but not weightwise. Unlike Simon, he did not have pounds to spare, so he got a lecture about how he needs to eat lots of healthy snacks and indulge in some milkshakes here and there. Enviable problem to have....

The boys had a sleepover at Grandmom and Poppy's house last night. Frozen theme. They watched the movie (a screener my dad got from somewhere) and had all kinds of ice-themed treats! Well done, as usual Grandmom and Aunt Deb. The kids get so spoiled over there!!! Tom and I went out for sushi for a belated Valentine's date and then went back and got Jonathan, who is not quite ready to spend the night... or rather... grandmom is not quite ready for Jonathan to spend the night. HA! (and neither is mommy... )

Ben has been keeping busy with basketball. His team hasn't won a single game this year though they play well. There are some major issues with the draft system the rec council uses and the way the teams are formed... it's annoying and kind of a bummer for these kids who play SO hard.  They seem to be having fun anyway but I do wish they could win a game.

Both older boys are still swimming on Saturdays. Simon hasn't made a whole lot of progress with this new teacher, though Ben seems to excel with her. We're going to make a change in March and put Simon with a different teacher and hopefully Jonathan too. He won't even get in the water with the new teacher unless I get in too. I am really looking forward to the end of May when the pool opens and June when swim team starts. It can't come soon enough!!! There's a chance we actually participate in two swim teams this year.... not sure if that will work, but we'll see. Hoping Simon will participate this year!

Jonathan...  that kid is TOUGH lately. Lots of meltdowns and challenging behavior. We've taken a hard line with it and thus, he spends a lot of time in timeouts lately. I think maybe we're getting through to him though... we have won a couple really tough battles in the last two days. One step at a time....

Oh and he also has taken to randomly removing his pants lately... so that's fun. 

He does like his new playgroup "school". Hasn't had much of regular preschool lately thanks to snow and ice. No school tomorrow because of the holiday... maybe Wednesday will be the start of some real routine? Maybe?

OH and the boys finally met their new baby boy cousin this morning.  (He's about two weeks old now) Jonathan didn't care at all, Simon wasn't quite sure how to react, but Ben was ALL over it. He even held Baby W. So sweet....

I think that's all the updates I have for now... I'll add some photos to this post later! :)

Picture Day....

Picture day was Wednesday. This is how they looked when I sent them to school. I'm sure the photos will look nothing like this, especially since i forgot to send in the photo forms and by the time I ran them up to school, Simon had just eaten lunch and was covered in pizza. (he had to be retaken WITH the form... they had already done his class)

Sigh.

Update Time....

...before too much more time passes.

Jonathan:
Potty training is chugging along! Haha... get it? TRAINing... chug... yeah, anyway. He's getting it. Tells us when he needs to pee pee now, unless he's distracted. Yeah, we're in THAT zone. I don't let him go downstairs to play anymore unless he has recently gone because it's almost always a recipe for wet pants. And then when I call downstairs to ask him if he needs to go, he freaks out and yells "No! Don't come down here!" It's his tell. ;)  LOL!  Truly though, never thought we'd even be THIS far in the process at this point, so I'm THRILLED. He has expressed a teeny bit of interest in doing the more complicated potty process too, and, although I have encouraged, we are not delving into that until #1 is down pat.

He MAY even be wearing big boy underwear to school today for the first time. I am almost positive there will be at least ONE accident, because he still needs so many reminders. But I think it will help to be 100% consistent with the underwear. He has been wearing a PullUp to school up until now and now that's he really getting it, I'm thinking that's kind of confusing.

**update** Nope. No underwears today. He was all off kilter this morning and upset about school again, plus he peed his pants on the way out the door, so I made the call to just bag it.  Maybe next week. :)

Also, today is picture day. :) Unrelated to the potty thing, but I'm pretty excited for his first school pictures. (he wouldn't do it last year)


Simon:
His teacher told me he has jumped up several reading levels just since the start of school! He also knows all of his sight words (though he will, apparently, only share this knowledge when she makes him do it one on one... this is an issue) She has some concerns about his handwriting/fine motor and is sending him back to the school OT to have her check things out. But when I asked about reading, she said things are great! She also said he's really doing well in math and really, really "gets" math. So that's pretty neat. He has some things we need to work on but that's a whole other post. Wanted to share the really neat, positive things for now. :)

Ben:
All around good, easy, wonderful, confident right now.

Oh, but here's a funny story...  so last night, he was doing his math homework. He got a few problems in and I noticed he was looking frustrated, near tears even. They are doing double digit multiplication. I thought this was a little odd because he has truly never struggled with math!  So I asked him if he needed help and he started to cry, "I just don't get this!! I'm lost!!!"  I asked him if he had been lost in class too and he said yes. Yikes.  So I looked at his paper and there were only answers (wrong ones) and no work.

"Where's the work?" I asked.

"I used mental math." was his reply.

Seriously? Mental math for double digit multiplication? I looked at the problems and tried to do one in my head and my head almost exploded.

Now, I don't know if mental math is what they were SUPPOSED to use? (you never know if Ben quite heard all the directions accurately) But it clearly wasn't working. So I showed him how I do double digit multiplication. I have NO idea if it's how they teach it now (probably not because everything now involves rounding and grouping and mental math and drawing ridiculously complicated pictures of cubes but whatever.)

So I showed him ... he watched a couple times and I could see things were clicking... and he had a eureka moment and proceeded to do all twenty or so problems in the span of about ten minutes the way I showed him and got them all right.  I have to wonder how they teach it if not this way... it's so simple. (and I can say that because I am a math idiot) Was he just not paying attention because he thought he could do it in his head? I may never know... but I'm sure glad I noticed he was struggling!

Now, I think it bears repeating that I am a MATH IDIOT.... Another couple years and Ben's math assignments will truly be beyond the scope of what I can help with. So I was pretty happy I was still able to come to the rescue this time. I just hope his teacher doesn't get annoyed I showed him my way. Honestly, does it matter how you do it as long as you get the right answer?

I guess we'll see!

Tom and I had a dating anniversary yesterday. We have officially been together longer than we haven't. That's kind of fun. No time to celebrate yesterday. Maybe this weekend. :)

First Week....

We all survived the first week of school. We fell back into our routine pretty quickly!

So, Ben... he started out the week super anxious about switching classes. As I predicted, after actually doing it on Tuesday, he was totally fine.

This year, he has the benefit of four different teachers, including the only two male classroom teachers at the school. (there is also an instrumental music teacher who is a man)

One of them is Mr. H. Every kid in the school from 2nd grade up knows Mr. H.. He's definitely one of those "cool" teachers who gets fourth graders, especially fourth grade boys. (he has four boys of his own) He wears funny ties sometimes and is big into sports and I always see the kids in the bus lines yelling things to him or high-fiving him.  He reminds me of the kind of teacher I know my dad is.

Ben has Mr. H for science. Now, Ben has always been a science-loving kid... he has studied (quite in-depth, I might add) everything from the solar system, to volcanoes, oceans, bugs, sharks/ fish on his own over the years. In the first few years of school, science and math kind of take a backseat to literacy, which makes sense. It's crucial the kids learn to read and write well first and foremost. But I knew Ben would really embrace school when REAL science came on the scene. And it appears it has. He came home the first day talking about fossils. The third day, he came home with a journal from reading class saying this:

Before school yesterday, he wanted to know more about electricity... where it comes from, where it goes... (OMG kid... I'm packing lunches...  here's the internet... ask Google!!)

Last night at dinner, he asked at least a hundred questions about DNA and genetics. He wanted to know what would happen if you just took DNA from one person and DNA from another person and put them together in a dish. I explained that that's called a "test tube baby" and we ended up having a little "facts of life" refresher. LOL.  Then he wondered what would happen if you took DNA from two different animals... "depends on the animal... sometimes you end up with a donkey." "Well how do you extract DNA? I want to do that!"  I told him I once took a genetics class in high school and we extracted DNA from fruit flies and made it so you could actually see it.  That blew his mind.

 (and, just FYI, that class was so over my head it wasn't even funny... Turns out, I somehow managed to accidentally take an AP class a year ahead of my own just because I thought genetics was cool... one of my classmates ended up becoming an actual brain surgeon... another became, no lie, a rocket scientist....)

Anyway, so I always knew he'd be into science class once it really got going and it seems I was right. And it also appears he has a teacher who already inspires him. So this is going to be a really awesome year for him!!!

He hasn't said much about Math, but I know he loves that teacher too and he's doing okay so far. They are learning about decimals and I've already been confused. THanks, math. I still hate you.

He has the same teacher for reading and writing and I've heard through the grapevine that she is a phenomenal writing teacher. When he feels inspired, Ben actually REALLY enjoys writing, and I think she'll be really great for him to really hone something i know he enjoys even though he doesn't always think he does.   In reading, they are getting ready to read the book "Wonder" and he's excited about that. Oh, and in case he needed an extra reason to love that class, he is seated next to his best friend. One of the positives of them shaking up the class levels this year meant this was a actually a possibility... never in a million years did I think they'd actually be seated together. But for now, they are... with a girl between them... who happens to be Georgia, a little girl who Ben went to preschool with and was BFFs with during their time there. How fun is that?

For homeroom, he has his reading teacher from last year. While I would have loved for him to have had her for reading/writing, I'm thrilled she is part of his fourth grade year even just for homeroom. She's a wonderful teacher and knows Ben well from last year. I love that he starts and ends the day with her and I think of it as his "safe place to land".

Really just seems like it will be a good year all around for him and he really seems to be finding his footing academically.



Simon ....

I was initially worried about how things would go. Simon can be a tough kid in the classroom... not with behavior... but in quiet ways. I knew he needed just the right teacher to make this a successful year.   I don't know any of the first grade teachers, so I didn't know what to expect; but as soon as he came home on the first day and said, "I think I have the nicest teacher in the whole entire school!!!" I knew it was going to be okay. He continued to talk all week about how nice his teacher is and how much he loves her.  :) Makes a mom's heart happy...

He is SO happy, loves going every day and has found friends in his class. He only has good things to say when he comes home! The little bit of classwork that has come home looks like he is putting forth his best effort too.

They haven't split into reading groups yet, according to him, but he did bring home two little take-home books "Cat Sat on the Mat"... that sort of thing... and he read them easily.. so the reading is definitely improving.

I haven't communicated with his teacher at all.  My teacher friends all told me to let her figure him out for herself. I was pleasantly surprised when she came up to me yesterday at pickup. She told me he's doing really well and that particular day had been FANTASTIC.... and to ask him about getting on "purple". Purple means he was a role model for other students. :) He reports it was because he was standing in line so nicely. So sweet....

She added that he is warming up to her, smiling at her now sometimes and just really doing a nice job in general. They had a little assignment where they had to come home and ask about where their names came from. She said he got right up front yesterday and explained everything we had told him about his name! Proud of him... I was praying for a really good classroom/teacher fit this year and it seems we may have gotten it.

Everyone did great in their specials.... no complaints... even from Ben who was dreading instrumental music. LOL.

So a great first week all around!!

Open House....

Yesterday afternoon was the open house at the elementary school.  It started at 3, but we arrived at 2:30 because yeah, I don't do that fighting for a parking spot nonsense. We met up with my similarly Type-A sister-in-law and niece on the playground and the kids all played until it was time to go into school.

The boys dutifully hauled their heavy backpacks in without much complaint while I sang "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and skipped. My children tolerated this surprisingly well.

Also? I rehearsed Simon before we went in.

"Hi Simon! I'm your teacher, Mrs. B! Welcome back to school...  and now you say....??"

Just wanted to make sure he wasn't going to hide or run away, growl or snarl.  He did okay. But more on that later.

First we headed to Ben's room because I knew I could leave him there and focus more on Simon. Ben's homeroom teacher is his reading teacher from last year and I have to say,  it was really, REALLY nice to walk into a classroom to a teacher we already knew. I know she only has him for homeroom, but even that will eliminate ONE round of explaining Ben to people this year. Case in point? His seat was right up in the front of the classroom. No accident, I'm promise you.

His room smelled like the Clorox wipes that come in the green can.  Best. Smell. Ever. (next to Clean Cotton from Yankee Candle) Ahhh... I love the smell of a squeaky clean school before it gets converted to a winter germ factory.

The classroom theme is Hollywood and the teacher had rolled out a red carpet for the kids to walk in on... so cute! I helped Ben put his things in his desk and then got him set up doing handprints in back of the room for the wall of fame. He said he was okay with coming to find us (he did this last year too and can I just say that having an "older kid" makes life so much easier?) and so Simon and I headed off to find his classroom.

Simon's classroom is very close to his kindergarten room, which is nice. He's less likely to get lost and wander aimlessly on the first day. It's bright and cheery, as first grade classrooms should be! :) We found his desk pretty quickly. I didn't get a chance to take a picture at his desk though because as soon as we got there, there was a checklist of things to to be done. He was busy filling out a star shape with his name and favorite things ("minecraft!!!")  while I put all the supplies away, signed some forms, put things in his locker, etc. His teacher introduced herself to him and he whispered his name and refused to make eye contact. I call this a raging success, meaning he spoke, which is lot more than I expected. He also didn't try to leave the classroom.... so yay for that!

His desk is in a pod of six and he's either right up front or all the way in back. I actually couldn't tell which end of the classroom was the front.  This is probably a good thing...  there's bright, learnin'- type stuff on every wall! ;) Also, in my defense, it was really chaotic and I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention.

The teacher's organization really impressed me (Love me some good organizational systems) as did her demeanor as I listened to her speaking to the other kids and parents. I'm really hopeful for a good fit and a good year in general for Simon.  He has quite a few kids in his class from last year, more than I initially thought... so that's good!

On the way out, I remembered the photo, but another kid was using Simon's desk so we settled for one at the classroom door.  I got a smile!!! And a pose? I think he was just happy we were leaving....

We also stopped by his locker and practiced opening and closing it. Took a couple tries. :)

Oh and interesting note about lockers -- in fourth and fifth grade, they apparently don't put names on the them. There are no cheery rainbow stars or peace signs or labels with adorably written names lining the older kids' hallway. It looks like... well... middle school, which I'm guessing is what they are getting them prepared for. Smart people, those 4th and 5th grade teachers.

Later, we doubled back to Ben's classroom --  after the deluge of paperwork in Simon's room, I wanted to make sure I hadn't forgotten something in Ben's room because I left there empty-handed!. I was impressed that Ben knew which locker was his.  LOL. First off, I can't believe he thought to ask for (or maybe he just was the unwilling recipient of) his locker number when I wasn't there... secondly, he had already put his art smock and headphones in it while I was busy with Simon. Who is this kid?  I love it!

We stopped by to say hello to last year's teachers, although Simon hid from his kindergarten teacher. (sigh) And we stopped to say hi to Mrs. Terry in the library and take a picture in front of her "Read Box" (free rentals!) which is adorable. :)

So Monday is the big day! Off to the races with a 4th and 1st grader. Crossing fingers for a good day and a good year. :)

Ben's Biography Project, Simon's Kindergarten Conference and Other Things....

The third graders at our school all write a biography as one of their big projects for the year. I think Ben has been working on it since January or so! They are supposed to choose their mom or dad (although a couple kids did grandparents, so I will keep that in mind for when Simon goes through!) and they came home with a list of questions to ask their subject.

I knew what this project entailed, thanks to parents who have gone before me,  so I encouraged him to write about Tom, not me. (although he was leaning that way anyway.)  You see, once the book is published (they send them off and they are hardbound and everything!!), they have a biography party and the subjects are invited in to hear the kids read their biographies.

You have to sit in the front of the room and pictures of you as a baby, teenager, now and with your child are shown while they read.  Very, VERY sweet, actually... and if Ben had really REALLY wanted to write about me, I would have gone along with it, but I would have been beet red the entire time and wanting the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

Here's a picture of Ben reading his biography to Tom that one of the other moms sent me.  :)

I want to post the actual book (I posted it on FB) but I am having photo rotation and placement issues with Blogger, so maybe later.

He did SUCH a great job... Tom said Ben's a really great presenter. So funny. I kind of thought he'd end up having my public speaking issues since we had such a hard time with him being nervous about his economics project earlier in the year. (although he ended up doing a FANTASTIC job!!) I guess he's over his stage fright, because Tom said he wasn't nervous at all!

Since Tom was at school for the party at dismissal time, I seized the opportunity to schedule Simon's belated Kindergarten conference kid-free while daddy watched all the boys play on the playground.  Whew.

It went well. He's where he needs to be and she doesn't have concerns about him being ready for first grade, although we definitely need to keep up our work over the summer to make sure he doesn't lose ground. His handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds and he is doing a great job with stretch spelling. They are just starting to write sentences, which he seems to be doing well with!  I got a laugh out of one example from his journal that she showed me that said, "On the weekends, I like to upgrade my Lego sets." LOL! He cracks me up.

He's not where Ben with his reading and writing at the same point in his kindergarten year, and I was kind worried about that for awhile...(Not because I'm comparing them... but what else did I have to base my expectations on?) I was concerned more because he didn't seem to be making any steady forward movement than anything else. But now he's making a lot of progress, so I feel better. I know they are unique and different in their strengths and abilities. Simon's also a little younger than Ben was (both chronologically and in just in overall maturity) and just a different kind of kid all around.

The teacher said he does well with math and is really quick with picking up patterns. I think that's so interesting... and it really fits with what I know about how his brain works. :) Definitely my builder/creator/doer.

There are some concerns with his attention and focus, (daydreaming, zoning out) which we're just watching. It's kind of perplexing because I've never really seen that in him, except with homework... but SO much is going on in our house during homework time... so I've noticed it, but never thought much of it. Actually, as I type this, he's sitting, where he has been for an hour, intently concentrating on building a Star Wars Lego set.

I do think he's a super sensitive kid to anything like not getting enough sleep, not feeling 100% for whatever reason. He also gets a little overwhelmed sometimes by all the hustle and bustle at school and I have to wonder if the days there are focus issues aren't days when something like that is at play. But, time will tell...  it's most definitely a possibility, just given the fact that he's in our family.... so we'll just watch and wait.

Anyway, so that went well. I asked about his teacher for next year because, why not? I knew there wouldn't be an answer, but I had to try.  ;)  But yeah, no answer on that.

Moving on... that same day, Jonathan had his very last Two and You class.

Early on, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him with Miss Sally... he had other ideas.  Miss Sally had brought in a new cd player. He posed with it. LOL!

He danced up a storm that day... this is him during Bear Hunt.

And with buddy Lillian.... 

Finally, I got my Miss Sally picture. ;)

Whew. Crazy Friday!