It does not seem so long ago that Claire started kindergarten.  Today, Claire successfully completed kindergarten.  Her final report card indicated that she has officially been promoted to first grade.  She also received a “Certificate of Commended Attendance” for showing up most of the time.   I am happy to say that Claire was not late to school once all year, and our morning off-to-school routine was “spit spot”.  It became such a solid routine that I could (and sort of did) go through it in my sleep.

The last month of school has been full of fun-themed days such as Friendship Note Day, Water Day, Pajama Day, Pillow and Movie Day, Bubble Day, and No Shoes Day, to name a few.  In fact, there were only two “normal” days in all of May.  Totday, the last day of school, was Game Day.  The kids got to bring in non-electronic games to play with their friends all day.  Claire brought in Zingo, which is sort of a fun, kid’s bingo.  We saw at least two other kindergarteners carrying the same game into school today.  Kit has the week off, so we were all able to take Claire to school together.  When we dropped Claire off to school, all the chairs tables were cleared to the side of the room to make space for games.  Claire told us later that they really just played games all day.  They took a lunch break, but no recess.  This was a serious day of playing.

This was a good if sometimes bumpy school year for Claire.  She learned a whole lot, including a solid start on reading, writing, and math.  But not just that; she also gained some maturity this year, such as a better ability to focus and listen to directions.  There was also a slightly confusing monkey bar incident where Claire was apparently unkind to another student and even had to visit the principal.  Claire learned a lot about being sensitive to others from this incident.  Luckily, this was not quite as serious of a situation as we thought it was at first.  At first, we had bad information and thought Claire might be asked to leave the school!

Claire seemed to really enjoy kindergarten, and never complained about it or asked to stay home from school.  She would clearly have missed playing with her friends too much.  Her enthusiasm only flagged early in the year when she had a little trouble adjusting to her new school.  Claire also learned to love Extend-a-Care after school.  She seems to have figured out that Extend-a-Care is just a big play date every day after school.  She made some good Extend-a-Care friends, had lots of extra outdoor play time compared to coming home, watched almost no TV on weekdays (no time), and even started Girl Scouts.

We went to pick up Claire early from Extend-a-care, around 3:00, on the last day so she would not be the last, lonely kid at school.  When we got there, there were lots of kids, and Claire asked to stay at school a while longer so that she could do the water balloon fights and make sundaes.  So Kit and I went back home for a couple of hours to let her have her final fun at school!

The rest of the evening featured melted frozen yogurt and a shared bath in which Molly peed in the water.  Claire calmly noted that yes, the water did turn yellow, and kept playing.  We had to get them both out quickly and sort of sponge-bathe them.  Oddly enough, that was the first — and now clearly the last — time that happened all school year.