Proud O' My Kids!

This week has been busy with kindergarten graduation and Isaac's awards assembly with class parties thrown in to boot! It has been a great week but busy and somewhere in here I still have a birthday cake to make for the Tan-man!

Yesterday was Brynnie's kindergarten graduation. They do it up BIG here in Japan. The children were to be in "formal" clothing. They had graduation caps and were given their diplomas in special canisters. The Montessori preschool children and the kindergartners gave a performance. The teachers interviewed each child and presented us with the DVD of the videos. And there was a luncheon afterward. It was quite the production. I think it took almost as long as my high school graduation and I enjoyed it about as much as I did that day....enough said :0)

She did a great job with her singing and Brynn loved saying goodbye to her teachers and friends for the summer. She loved getting the diploma and she even got to keep her tassel. The kindergarten teacher gave awards to each student for different things...i.e. best reader, best handwriting, etc. Brynn was awarded the behavior award. We just hope it is for GOOD behavior and not bad :0)

Here is Brynn with all of the kindergarten girls from her class. They are all sweeties and they get along really well with one another!Here is a picture of Brynn with her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Paron. Mrs. Paron is from the Fishers area and actually went home to Community North last summer to have her baby. She and her husband are both here teaching. She was on maternity leave for the first part of the year but came back for second semester. We ALL love her and are so glad that her little boy was willing to share her with us!

Now for Isaac. He had his awards ceremony this morning where they gave out 3 awards at each grade level 1-5. There was a Most Improved Student, a Overall Excellence, and a third award that is similar to a "Sportsmanship/Congeniality" award. I can't remember what it was called.

Out of 22 kids in his class, Isaac won the Most Improved award. I wasn't sure whether to be happy because he won it or shocked because he was so low at the beginning of the year and had to come so far. Let me explain....apparently, Indiana schools are not as good as I had hoped. Isaac always did well in kindergarten and first grade in Fishers and we never had any concerns other than his incessant need to make people laugh. When he arrived in Japan, Ms. M., (his teacher here) said he was at a high kindergarten level. WHAT??!!?? My child? And of course I took it personally because I am a teacher and I am his mother and somehow that means that I failed.

The kids here in the Preschool/Montessori program are already reading and writing at ages 3 and 4. By first grade, they are writing paragraphs and long stories. In Fishers, Isaac left first grade only writing a few sentences at a time. His first week of school here, his spelling test consisted of 12 orally dictated sentences. His poor hand had never written that many sentences correctly at one time. He overcame his slow handwriting and reading and surpassed all of our expectations (other than him still needing to make everyone laugh). We are terribly proud of him and now I can say, I am happy and honored that he received this award.

Here is Isaac with his award. And here he is with Ms. M. She is headed back to the US this year and we will miss her very much. She is a fabulous teacher and made Isaac do things he never thought he could. She was firm and tough but loving...everything I would have been if I had been his teacher. How could I not adore her :0) We wish her the best.

I am grateful for the wonderful year that both of our kiddos had and proud of their accomplishments. Now, to start the Bowman daily summer school program next week!