Catching Up: Kindergarten "Promotion"

Remember how I think preschool graduations are a tad silly? Well, preschool graduations pale in absurdity and ridiculousness compared to Kindergarten promotions. At least moving into elementary school is typically a big step in a kid's life, or considered to be so by most people. Kindergarten to 1st grade? So not a big deal, especially now that most Kindergartens are full day and far more academically rigorous than they used to be. But, Gareth's school had a "promotion", so I dutifully made Malcolm miss his morning nap in order to support Gareth.

I even volunteered to make cookies or muffins (because what all 6 year olds need is loads of sugar at 10 am). I'd stupidly figured that the event was the day after all my projects and chem final would be over, so I'd be free the evening before to bake. I didn't stop to realize that not only would I be exhausted but that my kitchen would still be a huge mess from several nights of no time to clean. So instead of making banana bread, we ended up running to the store to buy some yummy (but expensive) muffins before heading to school the next morning. I felt better about this when I saw that just about everyone else who brought in food had also purchased it.

Gareth had been singing songs that they'd perform at the event for the couple of weeks before and was generally very excited about it. All the Kindergarten kids filed in, the principal spoke briefly, the kids sang "You're a Grand Old Flag", complete with Nazi salute to the flag at the end (someone obviously wasn't thinking clearly when they made that choreography decision), a teacher read something, one room read all their names, Gareth's teacher read something, another room read all their names, the principal read a poem he'd written, and Gareth's teacher read his class's names, then the kids sang a song, and then ended with a song about moving to first grade sung to the tune of "New York, New York". This idea must've come from the common core because my cousin's daughter sang exactly the same thing in North Carolina. The children were all very cute. Gareth was in the front row, so he could easily see Malcolm and me (who were in the very back in case I needed to make a quick exit with Malcolm), and he was pretty excited that we could see him and he us I think.

Gareth's teacher

Gareth getting his certificate

A friend tied a balloon to Malcolm's stroller before the event which kept him happily entertained until about halfway through. At that point he wanted out of the stroller, which guarantees some upset moments when he's not allowed to crawl all over the floor. But he was intermittently happy (usually when playing with the balloon again) and upset. Using the camera with him in my arms was out of the question and he absolutely refused to go to a friend, so the friend ended up taking pictures for me. He really did quite well considering he was missing a nap.

Getting grumpy

In the end, the kids were cute but it was such an unnecessary event. Why do kids need a pat on the back for completing Kindergarten of all things? Gareth was excited about singing the songs he'd learned and being up on the stage though, so it was good to go to be supportive of him.