Kindergarten Prep

Today is the day before N starts Kindergarten. I decided to keep his last day before school starts low key. We've done a ton of funs things in the last few weeks to squeeze out every last minute of summer, so a low key day was great! (I'll blog more about our fun activities in a few days...I'll have more time to do that when N goes to school! Ha!). So here are a few things we've done in the last few weeks to prepare and what we're doing today.

I decided to "invest in" a really nice "Planet Box" lunch box that will hopefully last several years. N helped me pick it out and he really loves it. I highly, highly recommend it. N has asked to eat every meal out of it since we got it in the mail. I'm glad he did because we've had fun making various meals (even breakfast) in it and he's had time to "practice" using his Planet Box.....or "Space Box" or "Army mess kit" and my friends and family have called it. Call it what you will, it's one handy little thing!

It's interesting how Kindergarten has changed since I went..One thing I don't recall doing is labeling everything. We might have labeled our shoes and our backpacks, but I don't remember labeling every marker, colored pencil, glue, etc. A friend recommended some vinyl labels that are supposed to withstand everything (including the dishwasher) so I bought some. N helped me label all of his supplies. He did a great job with it and now he's familiar with what items are his.

Little Brother has to get in on everything, right?! So he tested out N's backpack (or pack pack as L calls it). He approved. He approved that it's too big for him, so N can take it to school.

N leading L to the park. So cute of the two of them to hold hands!!

Playing on top of the spiral slide

Hide and Seek

N leading L to the swings

We had gorgeous weather this morning, so I scrapped my plans of working out at the gym and decided to take the boys for one last bike ride. Taking the boys for long bike rides and then to the park has been one of my most favorite things to do this summer. I put N in the rickshaw basket, L in the baby seat and away we went. I road for about 35 minutes and the deal is, if they're good, we stop at a park. They were good, so we stopped at N's park of choice. He chose the playground at his school. We've played there several times the last few weeks. I like the idea that he's getting acclimated with the playground. The three of us have come up with a few games N can ask his friends to play on the playground. One of them is hide and seek (L's playing hide and seek in the picture above). The three of us enjoyed going down the big spiral slide numerous times. We tested out all the swings and the boys took turns holding my hands and balancing on the edging that surrounds the playground. After eating a short snack, we headed home, ate lunch (N's in his planet box of course!) and L went down for a nap. I told N I'd play whatever he wanted with him while L napped. He immediately chose Bingo. N and I have played many a game of Bingo this summer during nap time. Somewhere along the way he instituted the policy that if he wins Bingo he gets a piece of candy...so, I went with it. One piece can't hurt, right? Most of the time I have Bingo two or three times over before he does, but I don't say so. I let the game keep going until he wins. That way he practices number recognition, he wins, and he gets a piece of candy! Someday I'll tell him this little secret. We played One, Two, Three Stomp after that. Then N and I stretched out on the couch and took a little nap together. I needed it because the boys were up six times in the night last night!! Eek! now I'm letting him watch a little "television" (as N is currently calling it). Tonight is N's "Meet the Teacher" night and supply drop off. We're looking forward to that. Then tomorrow is the big day! His first day of Kindergarten!!!

Update...

We met N's teacher, Miss G, and saw the classroom tonight. D was very patient and let us stay for about a half hour to let N get familiar with the classroom, bathrooms, lunch room, his locker and and the gym. We couldn't find the library, so we decided he can discover that with his teacher, Miss G. The only concern we have is that the teacher has trains in her room...N is soooo particular about trains that he tends to be possessive of them and doesn't share them very well. Sooo, we'll see how that goes. D and I both had conversations with him about the fact that he needs to share the trains and if he doesn't get a chance to play trains at school he can always play them at home.

I must admit. I got a little sappy about N going to school this evening. I was giving him a bath and I had the thought that it seems like yesterday that I was giving him a bath in his little baby bath seat. And, bam, now he's five and off to school! I told myself not to get too sentimental about it 'cause I didn't want to cry in front of him. I didn't want to give him any indication that Mommy is sad about school. I don't want him to be sad about school! So I held it together. He asked me to read him one book before bed, so I did. Then he asked me to read it to him again....so I did. Then he asked me to sing him a song...So I did. I asked him what song and he request Sunshine..Ugh! I knew the tears would come..and they did. I just told him Mommy's crying 'cause I'm so proud of him and I can't believe he's growing up so fast. He was okay with it.

Hopefully I'm not a hot, crying mess tomorrow. :)