School's Out

It's bragging time!

My cute kindergartner has graduated, and I am so proud of how far he's come in one short year. I've never been able to send my kids to formal preschool. I just try to teach them their letters and make sure they can write their name before they head off to kindergarten. I knew I didn't need to worry about Colby keeping up, though. I've known since he was teeny tiny that he's got some super powered brains in his head. I think he was about 3 when he developed a fascination with dinosaurs and collected a library of facts about all the different species. Then around age 4 or so he announced that he was now a squid scientist and felt it was his duty to inform us how they propel themselves through the water backwards by squirting the water out of their mouths and so forth (I credit all this education to PBS - who says TV's not good for your kids?). Anyway, he comes home from school with new knowledge to spout out every day and he's reading like a pro. His teacher says he's testing at a second or third grade level. This is his favorite friend from class, Abby, and his teacher Mr. Pieper.

Nolan has just completed second grade and is no less impressive. In addition to his completion certificate, his teacher Mr. Lin gave him a special award for being an excellent thinker. I couldn't agree more! The greatest thing that happened at graduation, though, was a complete surprise to me. The school's music teacher got up and said that even though she had many students and many classes, she had only chosen two students to receive awards - one boy and one girl. Then she called Nolan up to accept his award as musician of the year! I almost fell out of my seat! I felt really guilty too, though. Apparently he's got a talent that I have not been nurturing. Better get that boy some piano lessons or something.

Here's Nolan with Ian and Mr. Lin...