Ahh, our Zach. So much to say about our biggest boy - so big, old, young and small all at the same time.
The most obvious starting point is what everyone asks us about: school. Zach loves kindergarten. He has reached the point where he understands that most kids go to all day kindergarten, and he's more than a little perturbed he's not one of them. We have to wake him up each day, but once we get past the initial "I don't want to get out of bed" stage, he's raring to go. He had his first sick day this week, and spent much of the morning telling me he wished he was at school. As a parent, that's what you hope for!
We have our first conference with his teacher, Mrs. Hildebrand (aka Mrs. Hilde) tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have much to add after that. But for now I'm enjoying hearing about school from Zach's perspective.
Every day he comes running off the school bus, eager to dump out his backpack and show me every piece of paper - one by one, each presented grandly for my perusal. Other than that routine, what I hear each day varies greatly. In the beginning, it was mostly about what new friends he made - he started out with the girls, Iris, Makayla, and Madison, and now I hear more about Aaron and Kyle. Now I hear random little tidbits - Kingston lost a penny today because he wasn't listening! Ryan brought a real Vikings football for show and share today! We played (one of a seemingly-endless variation of) tag today in gym! Mrs. Hilde reads a chapter of Junie B. Jones while we eat our snack! One thing I didn't hear about from Zach.. the second week of school a classmate threw up in a wastebasket in the classroom. Zach was totally oblivious!
There are 20 kids in Zach's class. He gets on the bus at 7:50, starts at 8:10, finishes at 10:55 and is home around 11:20. He has gym twice a week and visits the library once. Fridays have a "free choice" period, where they either play outside or whatever they choose inside the classroom. Last week there were too many kids who wanted to play Chutes & Ladders so they formed teams. I wish I could have seen how that was negotiated - Zach told me the teacher wasn't involved! I send his snack, but he gets milk there (if he puts his milk stick in the milk cup as opposed to the "no milk" cup). He and two others are the only ones who don't choose chocolate milk when it's an option on Fridays. :)
The class is working on "star words" - more commonly known as "sight words." Since Zach knows how to read, I was a little concerned how he'd handle this, but he seems to just be going with the flow (although he was amused that the first word they learned was "I"). Math is currently focusing on shapes and patterns, and science is fun stuff like making applesauce. I'm intrigued at their approach to spelling - encouraging kids to just sound things out and write it however they hear it. It's been fun to see the results. They're also focusing on bullying this month, what it is and how to prevent it. They're beginning to work on reading to themselves, and soon will begin something called "guided math." They've spent a lot of time getting the kids comfortable and into the routines, so now the tougher stuff starts!
Once Zach gets home from school, we have lunch and play for a bit. He gets to watch a bit of tv or a movie most afternoons while Charlie is napping, and then most afternoons a neighbor is available to play after school. While I know he was ready to go to school all day, I think we're doing ok with this schedule!
I know, it may seem silly I'm recording all these details. But I'll never remember them, and I think it'll be fun to read when we're sending this boy off to college!
Ahh, enough about school. For now anyway! I have a list of funny and/or interesting things our son has said recently, such as:
"I can't wait until you guys are dead cause then I'll be in charge." Needless to say, we're had some discussions about death, but need to have a few more. I guess when you are 5, death is beyond your understanding. But I am determined that he understands it's not like dying on a video game!
"Mom, what is Goofy?" Upon hearing that Goofy is a dog... "What? Isn't Pluto a dog? How can they both be dogs when one wears clothes and talks?" I'm taking this as a sign that Zach is definitely maturing... haven't we all pondered this question more than once?
"Why aren't Phinneas and Ferb getting older?" I love this question too, because I can remember back when he struggled to understand that Dora wasn't a real person. When we talked about it, he understood that the brothers on his favorite show aren't real, but he thought it was weird that they weren't showing the boys getting older. Another good question!
Other things Zach has been up to...
Fantasy football! If you know Scott, you're not too terribly surprised by this. Scott has been talking to Zach about his fantasy football teams for a while, asking him which player to start that week, etc. So this year he decided Zach should have his own team, and recruited our two neighbor boys (a HS freshman and 7th grader!), their dad, and his brother to start a league. Zach's interest varies greatly depending on what else is going on, but he sure does enjoy talking trash to the older boys and men when he's beating them!
Maybe I already mentioned this, but just in case: Zach mastered the monkey bars this summer. He also has found some "zip lines" he can reach at various parks, and zooms back and forth endlessly. He's getting braver, starting to put his feet up on the bars, and I know next summer he'll be hanging upside down. I'm not sure I'm ready for that.
Zach and I have started working our way through the Magic Treehouse series of books. He likes to call them "the Jack & Annie books." Those siblings have some fun adventures together, and I enjoy sharing that time with Zach. I'll miss the days when he doesn't want us to read to him anymore!
I'm not going to go so far as to say it's replaced his Mario Brothers obsession, but Zach is definitely getting into Star Wars. He and Scott have watched 5 of the 6 movies, and he has a strange interest in Darth Maul (the scary-looking red-spiky-faced guy). Less unsettling is the fact that near the top of his list of potential Halloween costumes is Obi-Wan-Kenobi. We'll find out soon what the final decision is. But we're on the hunt for Star Wars stuff for Christmas!
Zach has also started curling. Our club offers a junior curling program on Saturday mornings, free to members' kids and run by volunteers. The kids are divided into groups by age/experience; Zach is starting in the "Little Rocks" - which is generally kids aged 6-9ish. So far he's only gone once (it's not every Saturday), and he was quite disappointed to find out he'd have to wait 2 more weeks to go again. They do all sorts of drills, to practice throwing the rocks (lighter/smaller ones), sweeping, and just not falling down on the ice. Scott is helping to "coach" the Little Rocks, and I suspect he's having as much fun as Zach is. We'll post video soon!
All the close-ups of Zach were my attempt to have Zach practice smiling for the camera, since he had his school picture taken today. I'm curious to see the end result!
These last pictures are from today - doesn't he look like a little man in his dress shirt? Nothing like stabbing a pumpkin and playing in dirt while wearing your good clothes! :) We are experimenting with something I saw on Pinterest... supposedly if you just cut the top off the pumpkin and add some dirt and water, you can grow your own pumpkin. Zach is pretty darn excited about this effort; I've had to explain over and over that
IF it works it's going to take a while. So I'm hoping this turns out. We'll keep you posted, on the growth of the pumpkin and the boy!
After arriving in the Milwaukee area Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed some playtime with my parents, a swim in Cindy & Caitlin's hotel pool, and some pizza. Then Cindy, Caitlin, Zach and I took the train south from Milwaukee bright and early Friday morning. We thought the kids would be entertained by the train ride itself... wrong. Apparently when you are 5 and 7 riding the rails isn't so different than riding in a car. Between some old-school classics like Mad Libs and new video gaming systems, the train ride passed relatively uneventfully.
Apparently we arrived at the wrong time on the wrong day, because we were greeted with a very long line. We passed the hour relatively well by leaving Cindy standing in line while I took the kids around to take pictures of the amazing sights (which for the kids and their cameras included a squirrel, some geese, and possibly even goose poop).
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