No Longer a Newbie

My little guy is no longer a newbie in school. June 1st he graduated from Kindergarten. I was so excited for him! He had such a great year and part of it was because he had such a great teacher, Mrs. Huddleston. She was exactly what he needed for sure. Gunnar is going to Heritage Community Charter School. This last year was their very first year, so Mrs. Huddleston moved over from the Homedale School District to teach. Then she retired. It has always been her dream to see a dual immersion program in action and this charter school fit the bill and fulfilled her wish. She was ready to retire after seeing it come to life. She taught for 31 years! Wow! She wanted to do more than have the little paper graduation hats so she enlisted the parent's to help make them. Gunnar and I went in one of our last days of spring break to cut out the caps with another parent and then other mom's helped sew them all together. They turned out really cute we all thought. We also had nice refreshments that everyone brought afterwards. There were 60 kindergartners total. It was fun to see both kindergarten teachers together. Mrs. Huddleston was retiring and Ms. Leon was a first year teacher.

Grandma Robin and Grandma Miller were able to come too. Gunnar loved that. I wasn't sure how I would feel about Gunnar graduating his very first year of school. I never get sad about anything really when it comes to my kids growing up but I was taken back how I was a little sad. Gunnar will never be in kindergarten again. He is now a full on school aged boy. Not a little boy anymore that is for sure. This year he was in the Title 1 Reading Program and has done so well. He is where he needs to be and slightly above average because of Ms. Woods. We loved her. If Gunnar tests at standard next year, he will not be in her class. I kind of want him to not so he can be with her. Is that mean? :) For his graduation present from us, we gave him a set of 6 Berenstein Bear books so that he can practice his reading throughout the summer. So far we are reading every day and he has blossomed out of nowhere. I am determined to keep him up to speed during the summer.

Gunnar had many little buddies in his class. We were lucky to have two friends from church in his class.

John Orton is Gunnar's best buddy. His birthday is in December so they are not in the same class at church but were for Kindergarten. They had a blast together this school year. So much that they were constantly getting in trouble because of each other. They would talk too much. Poor Mrs. Huddleston would have to continually find the perfect spot to put them in the classroom so they would not be near enough to talk to each other. John is a crazy good reader. One day they sat by us at church and during the Sacrament, John was reading Gunnar the Book of Mormon. Too cute.

Brandon Settle was another buddy in class. They also rode the same bus. Towards the end of the year Gunnar would tell me that he wanted him over for a play date. I've never met him or his mom really. By the time we got around to really having a chance for him to come over, it was too late. School was over. A couple of days before school was out, I heard Brandon yell out the bus window, tell your mom to call mine so we can play. I totally dropped the ball on this one. Gunnar had a blast with Brandon and I really hope they can rekindle that friendship next year.

Miss Abbie is one of our favorite girlies! We just love her. Her family is moving out of state within the next few months and we are going to miss her and then terribly. We have known her since she was 6 months old. Her and Gunnar are 6 months apart so they have been buddies for a long time. Pretty much their entire lives. They had several play dates at each other's houses throughout the year. Her bus stop was right before Gunnar's so it worked out well. Abbie totally has a crush on Gunnar which is so funny because he is so clueless when it comes to this stuff. Everyone is just a buddy to him.

We are so proud of our Gunnar and he is already looking for to 1st grade!