Kindergarten-Week One!

We started kindergarten this week.  It's early, I know.  But, I wanted to give us plenty of time to take off for holidays, vacation, etc.  (The "etc." would be the penchant for "personal days" we seemed to have during preschool.)  It will be nice to have the freedom to take a day or two off here and there knowing it won't set us back any.

I just realized that I didn't take any official "first day of kindergarten" pictures.  I'll have to snag some next week...preferably on a day when he decides to wear pants to school. ;)

 

Bringing toys into the "school room" was something I wanted to put an end to this year.  Realizing it was going to be a battle I had a moment of brilliance and implemented show and tell.  Now, why I didn't think of this last year?  I don't know.  His special toy stays in its hiding place until it's time for show and tell.  He comes and sits on the "show and tell square" and I say "C, did you bring something special to share with me today?"  And he gets a shy little smile on his face before he runs off to retrieve his toy.  It's pretty darn cute.  He answers a few questions about his toy, but mostly show and tell consists of him acting out a wild animal scene while I 'ooh' and 'ahh' appropriately.  See below...

 

I know there's no sound, but you should be able to tell that the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' are supposed to happen every time he looks at me.  I also realize that if they do show and tell at the nature school he will probably realize how lame our version is.  Because show and tell is obviously way better when you get to share it with someone other than the person who a) bought you that toy and b) is your mom.

This week we have just been reviewing the alphabet/letter sounds and numbers.  We were playing a game where I would say a word and then he would spell it out with his flashcards.  After he spelled 'bat' he asked me to say 'man' so he could spell batman.  We sounded out the word 'man' and I asked him if there was an 'a' in there.  He said yes and I told him that's why we couldn't do 'batman' because we only had one 'a' and needed two.  He thought for a second and then jumped up, "Mom!  My magnets!  Upstairs!  We can use the letter 'a' magnet!" 

He was so thrilled that he had figured that out.  "You didn't even know we could do that, did you mom?  You didn't know we could use the 'a' from my magnets to spell batman!  Did you?!?"  I thought it was pretty ingenious myself.  He must go to a great school. ;) 

Next week we dive into our new curriculum!