Memory Lane Monday... Earliest Memories: Pre-School/ Kindergarten

Discussing important "First Day" stuff! :)

How fitting that today is Haven's first day of preschool! I'm not exactly sure who was most excited today: Haven...who has been counting down the days until his "FIRST DAY!", Hudson...who got to wear his "new backpack" just to walk Haven to school, or Mom...who can't believe she is old enough to walk back through HER old school's doors...as a PARENT! It feels so funny to fill out HLV School papers and sign on the "Parent/Guardian" line! As we walked down to the (new, fancy, smancy) offices I see my old 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson. I have fond memories of her...and her class! She looks at me, smiles and says, "Well, Hello! You can't possibly have a child old enough to be here!" Alas, I do! Impossible as it seems... it IS possible! Today is that big day!

 Haven was so excited to go meet new friends, learn new things, and be at the "big school"! So excited, in fact, that he forgot to say goodbye! (Hudson was really bummed about this!) He called me at work when he got home to tell me all about his day. He didn't even say "Hello", just dove into conversation about playing with play dough, finding shells in the sand, having teddy grahams and cereal for snack, and helping with the "really great rules" that he somehow couldn't remember by the time he called me! *lol* All the while, Hudson is in the background...VERY EXCITED that his big brother is home again! Mid-sentence Haven stops and whispers very loudly, "SHHHH... BE QUIET I'm TALKING to MOM!" After work, Haven was trying to remember some of the finer details about his day to share. Things like: "Mom did you know those little boxes where we put our folders are called CUBBIES?" To which I reply, "Yes, they are!" Haven stops and stares at me in disbelief for just a moment and says, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" When I go on to explain that I once had cubbies for MY folders he stares at me in disbelief. I guess it's hard to think of our parents as being KIDS! :) He already brought home "Home" work in his "Home" folder. We had to fill out a questionnaire about him. I asked and he answered Here is his 4 year old insight... I love it:

I would like to learn about... "Animals, How things Grow, How things Work" {... Seriously?! I was figuring this would be super heroes, or dinosaurs. Nope... my FOUR YEAR OLD fills out a PRESCHOOL QUESTIONNAIRE with "I want to learn how things work!"}

I can: ______ all by myself... "write my name, and turn things on and off"...... {he goes on to say he's now tall enough to reach light switches and stuff since he's BIG... love it!}

I know ______ at preschool... "how to listen!" ... {I hope he intends to listen at preschool as well as he fills in his questionnaire questions! LOL}

Anyway, it was an adorably adorable first day of "big school" pre-school!

As for my own "memories".... MEMORY LANE MONDAY First Memories Preschool/Kindergarten Edition begins...... NOW! :)

The only preschool I went to was Wednesday School. It was a one day a week preschool out south of town at the Lutheran church. I L.O.V.E.D. Wednesday school!
I remember:

• getting fun little name tags in different shapes and you had to match your name tag to the group/table to find your group.
• the "Birthday cake" that had Christmas light "Candles" you got to light 
• the "Birthday machine"... you got to put in a quarter... turn a knob...etc. etc... (HAVEN STILL GOT TO DO THIS SAME EXACT MACHINE last year at his Wednesday School Birthday!!!!)
• the monkey puppet that sang to you
• the "offering bucket" which was an ice cream bucket with a hole in the lid. It was passed around during song time each week.
• the murals on the walls of Bible stories
• music time... we had instruments made of sand paper on wooden blocks, ice cream buckets (man these must be a valuable resource! LOL), some triangles, etc.
• WEDNESDAY SCHOOL GRADUATION! It was the BEST. We got to wear "graduation caps" made of construction paper with yarn tassels. ADORABLE!
• carpools! There were SO MANY kids that went we car pooled. It was HUGE back in the day. Now there is only 7 or 8 ish to a class! :(
• denim bags made especially for us... they were dark blue denim tote-style bags with red initial letters sewn on the front! I wish I still had mine!!!

Yes... Wednesday school was DEFINITELY full of fond memories! <3 I was THRILLED to learn it was still going on and that Haven could experience it as well!!!

Kindergarten Memories:

• I remember Homecoming Week in Kindergarten. They made A HUGE HUGE deal of us because we were the "Class of 2000!!!" Can you believe it?! They made buttons for us that declared that too! (In fact, I saw one hanging on the wall in the offices today! Brought back great memories!) I also remember making Indian headbands with a feather (we were the Warriors) which probably is totally NOT politically correct anymore! :) We also made signs by cutting big red and black letters out to spell HLV. I remember a classmate being photographed holding hers upside down! lol
• I remember Mr. Tibben in music class. I really liked going to music class with him.
• I remember making clay "pots" (*HAHA* that term is totally used loosely!) in art class, and painting with those brick style watercolors!
• I remember having the big bulletin board that showed "The Helpers" such as line leader, etc.
• I remember Mrs. Roe's big sign on the wall that showed "right" and "left" hand prints in red and green with the words printed below them.
• I remember my new shoes and how excited I was about them. They were HIGH TOPS! The coolest of all cool! :)
• I remember wearing a horridly bright colored button down shirt with toucans on them. YES!! It's as ugly as it sounds! Not only was it ugly but it had tuxedo like TAILS on the back! O.M.G. The 80's! I remember my Daddy dropping me off at school and telling me not to get my "tails" stuck in the door. And I worried all day!
• I remember it being SO COOL that there were 3 KRISTI(E)Ns in my grade. We were infinitely bound to using our initials. (Kristin S.)
• I remember the little sticker charts we used as incentive to learn to tie our shoes!
• I remember making locker tags in December that were Santa's head. And each day we glued a cotton ball onto his beard until it was full in time for Christmas!
• I remember using rag rugs for nap time, and NEVER really wanting to take a nap! LOL
• I remember being completely and TOTALLY envious of the OTHER class having an (almost) life-sized horse to climb on and sit on during free play! Their room was SOOOO cool. That teacher still teaches in the SAME room...but I didn't see the horse today! I'll have to look closer next time! ;)

I'm sure there are other things that will creep back into my ol' memory back now that I've got the juices a goin'! ;) But actually I'm happy and surprised I came up with so much! I'll definitely have to start thinking of the coolness that was "1st grade" for next week! :)

~Behold, Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward...

Psalm 127:3