Kindergarten is a huge change for both a kid and parents. The transition for Rowan seemed like a good one. I felt like it was a crazy long day (9am-3:25pm) and Rowan started to feel like that also after the first few weeks, but overall he liked and did well in Kindergarten. His teacher, Ms. Graham, had been teaching for 29 years, and we had heard great things about her. Rowan loved being in her class and was lucky enough to be in class with Levi and Andrew, his friends from church (and equally importantly, my friend's kids-it's nice to have another parent who should know what you need to know, etc). Rowan got lunch bunch with Ms. Graham every month except for one (which is quite impressive considering you have to have good behavior every single day of that month) and this was his favorite thing! He loved having lunch with his teacher and small group from his class.
He struggled knowing what he should do and who he should play with during recess occasionally which at one point made him not want to go to school. He had been playing with a friend regularly, but when another group of boys joined, he said they were making bad choices and just weren't very nice, so he stopped playing with them and had a hard time for a bit, which made me so sad but also grateful that he recognized when he should remove himself from a situation. He later started playing soccer with a large group at lunch everyday and school became a happier place for him! When we had his parent teacher conference, Ms. Graham said that she wished she could have 24 Rowan's in the class and that he was a delight. I already knew this but was glad this shining part of his personality manifest itself at school.
The end of the year was full of fun things including their class play. Rowan played a duke in the play
"King Bidgood's in the Bathtub"
He got to stay late after school one day (another cool thing about living so close to school and being one of very few "walkers" was our flexibility to be able to do things like this).
We LOVED walking to school and walked most days with Thomas across the street. The boys, including Boden, would usually sprint way ahead us to school and then usually wait to say bye as we got up there. There were many days, especially when Rowan was more apprehensive about going to school, that he would walk hand in hand with me, and I loved it. It gave us some good time together.
We decorated the sidewalk with chalk for our last day!
The crew!
Rowan's last day in Ms. Graham's Kindergarten class at Candlewood Elementary School. This school and teacher provided us a very good intro into elementary school, for which we are very grateful
His teacher gift was super cute. We did this for his teachers last year too and they loved it so thought I'd recreate it with a different cup. Ms. Graham was a diet Coke lover so he gifted her several cans throughout the year. So we thought a nice cup and straw with a box of diet coke and an Amazon giftcard would be a great present :) His card, he did all by himself and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever! "I loved spending time with you."
Goodbye Candlewood and Maryland. You were good to us!
And because comparisons are always fun...
On to 1st grade Rowan!
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