The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

Colby officially has 7 days left of kindergarten. What a year its been. His class went through alot of changes this year from having to move classrooms and then having his teacher leave in the middle of the year, only to be replaced with one who had just graduated 2 weeks prior to starting in his classroom. It was alot of adjustments for him and his class but I have been so proud at how well he has handled each change. I am embarrassed to say that he handled it much better than his mother. It has been so amazing to watch him this year and see all that he has learned and how much he has grown up. I remember being so sad at the beginning of the year to see him start school because I thought it was the beginning of the end. I was sending him out to the big, bad world and he was never going to be all mine anymore. But, he is still all mine and for the moment, he still needs me and I couldn't be more proud of the fine young man he is growing up to be. He has such a great personality and a great sense of humor. He has such a sunny disposition and smiles all the time. He is respectful, kind and considerate of others. He thinks the best about people and we never see him being mean or teasing other kids. He is full of energy, as always, but has really grown up and knows when to settle down. He is not perfect and he tests my patience and my limits hourly quite often. But, I think that is just normal child behavior and not reflective of the good person that he is. And really, more than anything else, all that I hope for each of my children is that they are good people .

Academically, he is doing very well. I couldn't be more pleased with his school and what he has learned this year. I am very pleased with how they separate children into groups based on where they are academically so that each student is taught at their individual level. The groups are split amongst all of the kindergarten teachers and so they change classes for that. I think that is great because then one teacher isn't having to teach all different levels. Because he has a late birthday and had an extra year at home, I really worried that he would be bored and not challenged. I was very pleased to find that this was not the case. He was given extra work and challenged consistently. His reading teacher says he is reading on a second grade level and he is doing some second grade math as well. He seems to really love learning and I hope that it stays that way.

We recently celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week and it was so sweet to see how into it he got. We decided to make spa sets for each of his teachers and he was so cute helping to make everything. I embroidered and decorated and he made his world famous homemade sugar scrub and bath salts. We have made this stuff together before but this time he was really into it. He picked out the scents he thought each teacher would like and is really becoming a pro at making our sugar scrub. After we were done I took some of the extra and did his hands and feet with the sugar scrub and let him take a bath with the bath salts. He loved it! For days, he wanted you to smell his skin and feel how soft it was. He gave each of his teachers full directions on exactly how to use it (because you know the way his mom did it is the only way) and told them that if they used it "it would turn your skin beautiful". Thankfully, she knew that was a compliment from a 6 year old. He also told one of his teachers "You know, I could have just bought you something (with all his money and everything) but this is more special because we made it"....Excuse me while I swell with pride...

Here are a couple of pics of our little creations...

One of the other mothers who volunteers in Colby's class said that out of the 3 kindergarten classrooms that she worked in, only a total of 5 students/parents even acknowledged that it was Teacher Appreciation Week or sent a thank you of some sort. Now, I admit, I might not have even known when it was had a friend of mine, who is a teacher, not said something to me about it. But, I think it is terrible that people don't acknowledge the hard work that these people do. I know just as sure as I am sitting here that there is no way I could be a teacher. It is a tough job, it keeps getting made tougher, it is often thankless and their pay is pitiful. My friend teaches at a local private school and gets paid less than minimum wage. That is just a sad, sad indicator of what is valued in this country. Pause while I stand on my soapbox...You know, this war on Iraq is supposed to be to protect our future. Our children are our future. Teachers are responsible for our future. With all the money that has been spent on the war, every teacher in this country could be a millionaire, every school in this country rebuilt and furnished with top of the line educational materials, and there would still be enough money leftover to feed, clothe and give medical care to every child in the country living in poverty...Ok, I am stepping down from the soapbox now...

So needless to say, I am one of those who is thankful for teachers. All teachers, not just the ones who have taught Colby. Although I am partial to them because if it were up to me to teach him how to read or write, I would be A) Dead from the deep and wide gashes on each of my wrists, B) Spending some time in a bare room with lovely soft walls, lying on a bed wearing a white jacket with 5 pretty little belts or C) decorating my new home cell at the women's prison. Colby would be A) dead, B) maimed or C) put up for adoption. And if he couldn't read or write, I wouldn't have found this on his dry erase board when I went to wake him up the other morning:

And it just doesn't get any better than that...So, I have made my peace with kindergarten and now see it not as the beginning of the end. But rather, the end of the beginning...