It was a fairly last minute decision for us to enroll Xavier into Kindergarten in the Fall, so I hadn't had much time to process and cherish the fact that this was his last year of preschool. It had been in the back of my mind all year, but I was honestly leaning towards one more year of pre-k. Long story short, after consulting with several friends and colleagues, we decided to just let Xavier go through with the Kindergarten Assessment just to see what would happen. When we got the results (which we got via e-mail on our way back from Greece), I literally wept. I'm sure jet lag and exhaustion played a huge role in my crazy crying, but when I heard that my 'lil guy somehow not only scored well but had received the second highest score that his assessor (a former Kindergarten teacher with 30-ish years of experience) had records for, I couldn't help with the waterworks. There were a few other factors that came into play with our decision - the class sizes of the pre-K and K and the average age of the incoming pre-K class versus K, for instance, and it was becoming clearer that Xavier belonged in kindergarten for the upcoming school year.
So, anyway, since Xavier was already a part-time pre-Ker at his school, he was able to graduate with the rest of the Bears in May. It was such a sweet celebration, but the icing on the cake was that I (being one of the Bear teachers) was able to hand him his diploma.
Fast forward to a week and a half later when, on the last day of school, Lissie graduated from Kindergarten! I'm still constantly amazed with all that she's grown, done, and learned this school year. In the small, safe environment of her classroom and school, she has definitely blossomed out of her shy shell. She came into Kindergarten knowing the beginning concepts of reading, but by year's end she had been reading chapter books on an almost fourth grade level! Who knew all of the things that one could learn in Kindergarten with the aid of a caring teacher!
And, to celebrate, and to kick off our summer, we headed straight to Chattanooga for a little road trip after a commemoratory lunch with the grandparents.
Congratulations to my little graduates of 2017! You made mommy and daddy proud! <3
