Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Back to School Milestones

Last year, when Izzi started Kindergarten, it was a year of firsts. Every single thing seemed new and exciting. On the first day of First Grade this year, I thought I might be more emotional but I was more excited this year than anything else. This was BIG girl school, not a practice run for what's to come.

During orientation with the new teacher, she explained that the first week of school, we were welcome to walk the kids into the classroom to help them get acclimated but by week 2, we were strongly urged to let our kids walk into the classroom on their own. Of course, some parents probably haven't been able to let that happen yet but we were already at this place last year so it didn't take Iz long to acclimate this year. In fact, she wouldn't even LET us come into the classroom on the first day. She kindly blocked me with her hand when I went to follow behind her into the classroom. She told me, "No, Mommy, I can do it."

A week later and I wanted to fast-track the drop-off process to get to the place we were at the end of last year. I would walk her into the school building but let her walk the long halls to her classroom on her own. It pained me to watch her turn the corner where I couldn't see her any longer, but I slowly adjusted, even if she was adjusting leaps and bounds ahead of schedule.

We started just our second week of First Grade yesterday. I drove her to school and only walked her inside the school walls and let her meander to class on her own. She did great. I did too. Only one lonely tear slid down my cheek but thankfully I had my big sunglasses that day so nary a person probably noticed.

Today, we took it a step further and we did the car drop-off line for the first time. This is where you pull up into a special drop-off car lane and some 5th grader opens the door for your kid, helps them out with their bookbag, and closes the door for them making sure they make it to the sidewalk safely which will usher them into their institute of learning.

I had to plan this just right because when I typically walk her in, we linger for a few moments and give a few extra hugs, some "kissing hands" (if you haven't read the joyous book "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn, it's a must for any parent and child who is starting school for the first time. In the car drop-off line though, there is no lingering allowed. They are militant in their expediency to keep the line moving. And I get that, but I'm not giving up my kissing hands just yet. So we have a system already in place. As soon as I turn into the parking lot, she is allowed to take off her seat belt (since we're moving at a snail's pace in a line of cars anyway). She can stand up and we can start our lingering moments then. We hold hands, she gives me a kiss on my cheek, I give her one back. And then when the car comes to a stop, I get to give her my usual drop-off bear hug and of course, our kissing hands. Then she's yanked out of the car by a 10-year-old and whisked off to start her day.

Such a brave girl, there was no crying today on this big "first" step. And Izzi didn't cry either...


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Generation Gaps

Isabelle started to get into video games about two years ago when Santa brought us a Wii for our family. We played it rabidly for about a year but have since slacked off on using it much. We were talking about firing it up recently after dinner one night and Ed & I started to tell her about the video games we played as kids. She loves to hear stories about what we did for fun growing up.

We just so happen to own an Atari 2600 joystick simulator game that you plug into your TV and play about 10 of the old classic games like Pong, Adventure, Breakout and Millipede. So we told Iz to try Adventure which is a game sort of like Brave where you have to get your guy through a castle to pick up keys and fight off a dragon and return the treasure at the end. She was very excited. Until we turned it on. LOL.

She was so confused looking at the screen. Ed and I couldn't help but laugh at a) the ridiculous-ness that the graphics were in 1980 and b) the look on Isabelle's face and how she literally could not even figure out where to begin.

So Ed told her "OK, you have to just start moving your guy and you'll find stuff you have to pickup".

Iz: Daddy, there is no GUY on the screen

Ed: Sure, he's right here (pointing at the TV screen).

Iz: Daddy, that's just a brown square.

Ed: Yea, well that's how they made our "guys" back then.

Iz: OOOOOK, so how do I move my square?

Ed: It's a "guy"

Iz: How do I move my GUY, then?

Ed: Just move your joystick.

Iz: What in the world is a joystick?

It went on like this for 20 minutes. It was comical and scary that such an easy game couldn't be figured out by our technologically experienced almost-first-grader.

So then we finally start remembering how to play and get around the castle. We eventually meet the almighty green dragon!!! Iz started laughing.

Iz: THAT'S the DRAGON? HAHAHAHAHA, he's not scary AT all. He actually looks more like a green amoeba.

Me: How do you know what an amoeba is?

Iz: Cuz we learned about them in school and they have no shape. And that dragon definitely has NO shape.

Lord help us! She's already smarter than us.