John's Preschool Graduation

John "graduated" from the Pre-K class at Covenant United Methodist Preschool. John had a great year with a teacher named Jan Glosser. Miss Jan is not your typical preschool teacher. She is tall and a rather large woman and is not warm and fuzzy. I think she does really well with BOYS. And John seemed to like her a lot. She really liked John and gave me some good counsel when I was struggling with Pre-K vs. Kindy for John for next year. She told me that if John were going to a traditional public kindergarten, she would send him on, but knowing the rigors of ACS, the choice was not so cut and dry.

On graduation day each child's teacher says something specific about each one of them. The ceremony is really sweet (and rather long!). Here is Jan's speech about John:

John is bubbly, happy, independent and helpful. 

I can always count on John to brighten my day with a great 

story from the ranch and a sweet smile to go with it. “Come on guys!” 

is a typical phrase heard from John as his natural leadership qualities 

help wrangle the guys on the playground to build something amazing 

or dig the deepest hole they can imagine. When I asked John the other 

day what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, “A hunter!” And 

I asked, “What would you hunt” “Anything you need!” was his answer. 

John will thrive next year and I’m looking forward to hearing about 

his adventures.

- Jan Glosser

I thought this was a great summary of John.

Selfie of us at the graduation party.

John and Tyler Mangum. He is a sweet friend that lives down the street.

I really should write down the names of the kids in his class. I have no idea who they are.
Sometimes I feel like I do not have the bandwidth to be super involved in two schools.

Graduation ceremony. I am horrified that I did not make him dress nicer. For some reason
I think I was gone that morning and did not realize what was happening.
Good grief. For future reference John LOVES those boots - summer or winter.
It does not matter.

John and his best buddy, Blake Mezger. The love each other very much.
Such a sweet friendship.

John to Pre-K

We have decided to put John into Pre-K next year at ACS. It turned out to be a hard decision for everyone but me but the Lord made it very clear that was the best step for him. I have had some time to get used to it but know the first day of school may be a bit hard (for me!) only because most of my good friends are sending their little boys to Kindergarten this year.

The idea was first brought up after John's Kindergarten readiness testing revealed some low areas. I did not think a thing about it until Dusty had an impromptu meeting with me. I was so relieved to know that Pre-K was even an option and Matt and I began the discussion. We looked at his scores and  met with Dusty and Mrs. Strickland (the seasoned Kindergarten teacher) and it was abundantly clear that putting him to Pre-K was the best thing.

John has the most joyful personality and he has wonderful confidence and an ease about him that draws friends of all sorts to him. He is a good friend to many. I just do not want to see some of these qualities go away from the stresses of trying to keep up with peers. Especially when I think about the rigors of ACS. I thought about working with him over the summer. . . for about a second. . .before letting that idea go. John simply needs another year to grow and mature. When I think about John in comparison to Will when he started Kindergarten, the 4 month age difference is magnified.

In the end, it will make this upcoming year for me MUCH easier. Pre-K is very sweet without many home demands. I look forward to easing John into our homeschool routine. I worried a lot about how John would handle the news about going to Pre-K. He is a little bummed to not be in the same class as Blake but it helped knowing that Blake was at least going to be at the same school.

This was Will's test the summer before Kindergarten - sorry it is sideways!

This is John's test. I will be interested to see how much it improves this next year after Pre-K at ACS.

John Turns FIVE!

Little Johnny-Cakes turned FIVE a few weeks ago but we just had his birthday party today. Some of his cutest and closest friends came to Pump it Up to celebrate with us. It really was a fun time with a manageable crowd. I love when they are young enough that all of their friends are really friends of MY friends. It makes the parties really fun since I can catch up with my friends, too!

Alivia made a special "Birthday Hat" for John - it says "Turtle" on it because he really loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right now

On his actual birthday (my board exam day) - we invited Blake, Josh and Sam Underwood, to come have burgers at P. Terry's with us. I thought this pic was especially cute. These boys sure love each other.

The famous "Birthday Hat"

All the kids at the Pump it Up party - very fun!

Me with the big birthday boy!