Friday, May 25, 2007

The Final Bell

Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids. Well, since they are homeschooled, it was the last day of their enrichment program where they went two days a week for dance, music, Spanish, chess, and other fun kinds of things.

The kids had great teachers, so Sissy wrote thank you notes to her teacher and I wrote "Calvin's" for him. I spent a lot of time telling her how much I appreciated her understanding my son and instilling in him a love of learning. Those were the important things for me this year.

For the last day of school they had a talent show. And I learned something. I can play the piano as well as the kindergartners. I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb with my left hand just like Calvin's friend.

However, Calvin hasn't quite learned recital etiquette. He was sitting on my lap and when his friend Ethan went up to play the piano, he started yelling, "Do it Ethan, do it!" Then when another little girl went up, they pronounced her name wrong and he corrected them. Other than that, he was pretty good for the hour-long show where his sister danced in two routines.

A couple other interesting observations. This girl in really ripped jeans, a ripped t-shirt, razor-cut hair, and dark eyeliner comes up. And she begins playing classical cello. And was very good. So incongruous. I love it when things like that happen. I can see her as a character in a book.

Then this little kid, maybe 2nd grade, played electric guitar, nearly as big as him, and he was GOOD. I was amazed.

And finally, I noticed that the younger kids would get up and do anything, but the older kids only came up to play if they were really, really good. At what point do we lose that ability to just want to show off and realize we have to be good to display our talents?

Calvin was crying when I picked him up at the end of the day. It was the first time he'd ever experienced this kind of change and loss, knowing we're moving and he won't see his friends again. Made me a little teary too. But thanks to the Internet, the kids will have pen pals via e-mail. I hope that makes the transition just a little bit better.

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