On Kindergarten Graduation and Awards for Not Eating Glue
It's a good thing I figured out that the school year was coming to a close a few days ago because otherwise the reality would have slapped me in the face like WOAH when we went to her school's "Moving Up Ceremony" tonight.
Which, let's just stop right there. I thought preschool graduation was cute. I did. This thing where we throw a huge party for kindergarteners for "graduation?" I CALL SHENANIGANS. With preschool a party was warranted because we grown-ups were walking away from one hell of a giant childcare bill. In kindergarten, what is there to celebrate? That your kid managed to not get caught eating glue?
Don't even get me started on the fact that the Moving Up Ceremony was for the entire elementary school. Just ... don't.
As we sat through watching each and every kindergartener recieving a diploma, I started to look at the program for the evening. Awards were coming up after a song by the kindergarteners.
AWARDS.
So not only were we there to celebrate the fact that most of the kids didn't get caught eating glue, we were going to have the extra special joy of watching a bunch of them recieve meaniningless certificates for vague reasons. OH. YAY.
The first awards were given for perfect attendance. Good job, kids! I'm so glad you have a better immune system than my kid! Except, my kid didn't miss any school because of illness. She was remarkably well this entire school year. The only day of school she missed was because her mother is an idiot who missed the fact that parent teacher conferences were switched from one date to another. Apparently the three emails explaining the date change weren't clear enough. Ahem.
So, uh, thanks for giving awards out to all of the parents who didn't fail as spectacularily as I did at getting their kid to school every day. Oh, and thanks for calling and asking where she was that day. It's not like I would've taken her in late if I had known I had screwed up. ::hulksmash::
ANYWAY.
Once the Perfect Attendance Awards were done, we moved on to the Physical Education Awards. SPOILER ALERT: Alexis can just go ahead and give up on those NBA dreams right now because she did not win a Physical Education Award in kindergarten.
She can also go ahead and give up on the Harvard dream. No Mathmatics Award for her either.
But then ... then there was the award for Best Handwriting. YOU GUYS, LOOK AT THIS.
No lie, I can't write as neatly as Alexis can. That girl has got some seriously fantastic penmanship. SURELY she had that award in the bag!
She didn't. Go ahead and insert a sad trombone sound right here.
But! But! There was still hope! After the Handwriting Award was the Art Award. Alexis spends a very large percentage of her waking hours creating art. She LOVES to color and cut and glue and tape and she creates some really very interesting art.
I guess Alexis' school doesn't think she's the next Picasso. She didn't win the Art Award either.
It was right about then that I realized just how ridiculous it was to care about whether or not Alexis recieved any awards. Those little pieces of paper were meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I'm certain that there is no correlation between getting an award in kindergarten and eventually becoming President of the United States. She can still become President (if she wants), even if she wasn't the winner of the Citizenship Award in kindergarten.
And then I heard her name called.
SPANISH AWARD, PEOPLE. MY KID WON THE SPANISH AWARD.
Apple, meet tree. I may not have started learning Spanish until high school, but my baby has absorbed some of it via osmosis! I certainly haven't had a hand in teaching her a single word. In fact, the closest I've come to teaching the kid any Spanish is the day that we argued about how to say blue. I speak REAL Spanish. Alexis has been learning the Latin American attempt at Spanish. I say azul correctly. She does not. She wanted to fight about it.
Other than that, her Spanish teacher gets all of the credit for her ability to count to 100, say the alphabet, name the months, list colors, and recite the days of the week in Spanish. I only get the credit for blowing her mind with an occasional sentence or two in Spanish when she asks me, "¿Cómo estás?"
Moving Up Ceremonies are clinically proven to be 5% less stupid when your kid wins an award.
(Fun coincidence: Earlier this week Alexis decided to dress like a Mexican. That's what she came up with. I think the Snow White shoes are where she really nailed it.)
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Reader Comments (7)
Adorable photo. You know who I think you should give credit to? The latino whore.
It goes the other way, too. My Mother STILL laughs about the fact that I won the Outstanding French Student in high school, despite that it was mumblemumble years ago, because I can pretty much introduce myself and that's it.
Another snicker worthy award was the Student Athlete award. The criteria was the highest GPA among those with a minimum of 3 varsity letters. I was the valedictorian and had exactly 3 varsity letters in tennis. The first 2 years I played tennis, there were only 7 girls on the team, so EVERYONE lettered. Ha! I totally stuck it to those football jocks that got full rides to college.
Muy bien.
Excellent picture of your daughter. My girls had graduation ceremonies from preschool, which I loved. the cap & gowns, it was just so cute. But, not any other grade yet (and they now leaving 2nd and 4th). My nephew does have moving up ceremonies each year, I guess it is the school.
But, she had Spanish in kindergarten! That is amazing! I am working on English with my kids still, and I am not the best role model at it. I speak better Pittsburghese... :)
We have those shoes in the "Ariel" variety! Little One usually wears them with a tutu...and nuthin' else.
Our school has Kindergarten graduation but no other grade until 8th (when they leave the school). BUT. This Friday at mass my Youngest Boy is being awarded the "Christian Leadership Award"! It's a big, huge, fantastic secret and I'm REALLY bad at keeping a secret but I've done it! Except, now the entire internet knows. Oh, well. I'm not even sure what the award IS but I DO know that every time his brother would do something mean to him (which is often, they're only 21 months apart) he would say, "Does THAT seem like Christian Leadership quality to YOU?!?!" Cracks me up that he won!
congrats to alexis for doing so well in spanish!
also, i really need a tutu.
This reminds me of how cute your kid's glasses are (and how cute Alexis is in general).
My kid's Catholic school makes a fairly big deal about the end of K, but these kids are just coming back next year (most of them, anyway), so I don't entirely see the point.
As for awards, the kid's school has some stupid ones, but I must admit that last year when she won the one for completing the mile in the appropriate time, I was pretty excited. Of course, she originally told me that she won the award for most athletic, which I thought was quite a feat with our shared utter lack of coordination (parents do not attend the award presentation).