Category: school

On May 26th 2011 Harry started Spiritridge Elementary school looking a little something like this:

Three and a bit years later and here he is on his last day at Elementary School – goodness me hasn’t he changed!

And just so he didn’t feel left out, this was Toby on his last day of this school year!

 

As part of finishing Elementary school the fifth graders have a graduation ceremony for which they all make hats! Here is Harry’s masterpiece:

 

We went to school that evening for the actual ceremony:

Here he is getting his certificate from Mrs Cooley:

And here is the Certificate of Completion:

 

Despite getting the certificate he still had two days left at school. I said he shouldn’t go but he did! Next stop Tilicum in September!

After about 87 days of summer vacation including baseball camp, soccer camps, soccer tournaments, goals, winners medals, surfing, sunshine, swimming in the lakes, play dates, trips to Red Robin, trips to the cinema, a visit to Mt Rainier, a holiday in San Diego and Vancouver Island, bears, whales and eagles, ice-creams and pizzas it was time to go back to school for a rest!

Both boys had got the teachers they wanted. Harry was going into fifth grade with Mrs Cooley and Toby into first grade with Mrs Malek. We had to go into school early on the first day (and every day that first week) because Harry was on school patrol which meant helping the parents and children get across the roads safely.

Here is Toby waiting in line for school to start, just before the thunderstorms and rain began:

Here is the first grade boy settling down at his table for his first exercise.

And this is Harry helping people cross the road!

So there we go, Harry is starting his third full year in school in the US and Toby his second – hopefully they are as good as they have been in the first few!

It’s nearly the end of the school year and to round it off we went into to Toby’s class this week to see him and his friends reciting poems. Toby was involved in four of them and here they are.

Poem 1 was Gulp, Gulp and was performed by Toby, Adarsh, Paul and Rune:

httpv://youtu.be/rL1tLuqTqrc

Poem 2 was Skeleton Parade and performed by Toby, Hana and Imogen.

httpv://youtu.be/_1oHoNzUYkU

Poem 3 was Chubby Little Snowman and was meant to be performed by Toby, Jack and Paul but Jack was scared and sat with his mum.

httpv://youtu.be/caDXPtwcRlg

His final poem was The Turkey is a Funny Bird and was performed by Toby, Jack, Hannah and Kenzie or at least it was meant to be but Jack was still scared!

httpv://youtu.be/tMpT1IZrXu8

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Today was no ordinary Monday at school for two little naughty boys. Harry was taking his handy work into school as he had completed his diorama. It was Harry’s way of expressing his own vision of a scene from Will Hobbs’ Ghost Canoe which they have been reading at school and very impressive it was too:

If you look closely in the picture you will see the baddy who has taken the gold but falls down the cliffs onto the rocks. Very impressive/creative, I’m sure you will agree.

The other naughty boy was meant to be celebrating his 100th day at school. In honor of this achievement his class was meant to dress up as 100 year olds and come into school. Was Toby happy about this? Take a look and make your own mind up:

After many weeks of waking up early on a Wednesday morning and getting into school at 8am for piano lessons, the end of term piano recital was upon us. With some last minute practicing completed on Tuesday evening we were up early and into school.

We went into the school dining area, had a last minute panic looking for Toby’s music book and then we were off! First up they each had to play one song each. Of our two, Harry was first up:

httpv://youtu.be/rAj5-IYmZ64

Followed soon after by Toby:

httpv://youtu.be/Wqu3-BJzETo

The teacher then invited any students up who wanted to play a second song. Harry got up quite quickly but Toby took a little more time to decide. Harry’s second performance went very well:

httpv://youtu.be/OUQsC98BGb8

As did Toby’s:

httpv://youtu.be/3cz_0ueTB1I

At the end the teacher said a few words and gave out some prizes and certificates. First up was Toby who was one of two students who got to choose two prizes for “being inspirational”. Harry also got to choose two prizes as he was in the top 5 students in the class – which was pretty impressive considering there were some two handed piano players on show!

What clever, musical children we have. Not sure where they get that from!!

A bit late but here are the pictures from the Spiritridge walkathon. Fund raising in the US is very different to the UK. If Harrold Primary School held an event they were pleased if they raised $600. In the US they try to raise $60,000 and they typically get it! Not quite sure how they do it but they do.

To raise the money this year was a walkathon and to encourage the kids to walk they placed hot dogs, pop corn and all sorts around the course. Each time they completed a lap they got their card stamped and while Harry and Toby were very well behaved and only got one stamp per lap there were lots of naughty children who tricked the parents into getting two stamps per lap.

By the end Harry had completed 9 laps and Toby 8 which would have put them pretty close to the front when the double counting kids were chopped in half. Still it’s not the winning that is important – it’s eating the hot dogs!

There are more pictures here.

… good! It’s not very often someone gets “caught being good” but today Toby was! Apparently this relates to a rewards scheme introduced into his class by his teacher. There is a chart on the wall at school and depending on how good (or bad) they are they move up and down the chart. They all start in the green section but today Toby moved up to blue as he was caught being good.

And “what did he do?” I hear you ask. Well, in his own words he “did as I was told on a laptop”. Very impressive I’m sure you will agree – and only a couple of others got one. Yesterday one of his friends, Lucy, went to the orange section – this was not good and meant a lot of tears at home time!

Keep it up Toby!

With the Labor Day holiday weekend out the way it was back to business, and business meant school! Harry was going into 4th grade and a year later than he should have been Toby was starting school. What a day! No more little babies for Tracy – they are two naughty school boys now!

Their bags had been packed the night before, so in the morning it was time for breakfast, a photo and then off to school.

Do they look a lot different from this time last year?

We parked up in the side streets and then walked them over to the school. As per last year we had to line up in the gym and wait for the clock to tick round to 9am. Just before 9, Mrs Filter summoned her kindergarten class and off I went with Toby  to his classroom while Tracy waited with Harry.

It was all going very smoothly until we reached his classroom when the fire alarm went off! It didn’t just go off for a couple of seconds though – it turned into a full blown fire alarm! So instead of sitting down in his new classroom, Toby and his new class mates had to go out the front of the school and wait for the fire engine to appear! After about 10 minutes the fire crew arrived and all was revealed as a false alarm – with suspicions falling on a dad who had been seen fiddling with the fire alarm in the gym! That’s why mum’s do the school run – dad’s clearly can’t be trusted!

Eventually we were allowed back into the school and Toby found his cubby hole in the class room and stuffed his bag in there. He sat down at his desk and looked like a very grown up little boy waiting for 12 years of school to begin!

After leaving Toby with his new desk friends I left and found Tracy and Harry waiting to go up to his room with his new teacher, Mrs Guilford. Harry was playing it cool though – no standing around with his parents while he waited, he was off with his friends.

Harry was then dropped off with his school supplies for the year and left to it – no emotional farewells from him! And so there we go – two little boys at school and now Tracy has got so much time to herself she won’t know what to do! Apart from tomorrow is Wednesday and they only have a half day on Wednesdays!

 

It’s the first week of the summer holidays which means Harry has finished his first full year at school in America. He was lucky enough to have his first year in a completely brand spanking new school. Across this first year he has picked up a bit of an American twang – although not as much as we thought he would – and made a lot of new friends.

Now it is the turn of Harry to tell us what he thought of his first year – the Harry view. So without further ado, here we go…

Question: It was your last day in 3rd Grade last week – how did you feel?

Answer: Happy. Because it is the end of the school and I get some time off school which I haven’t had in ages.

Question: Who did you make friends with this year?

Answer: Evan, Cole and Ethan.

Question: What did you enjoy the most this year?

Answer: Ummm.When mummy came in and helped do math.

Question: What was the worse thing about 3rd grade?

Answer: Ummm. Ummmm. Tut. Ummmm. Tut. I don’t really have any.

Question: Did you get into lots of trouble?

Answer: Noooo. No, no, no, no, no.

Question: What was the best thing you did in 3rd grade?

Answer: I thought I already answered that. Favourite thing I did? Well. We all get to make a poster about ourselves.

Question: What was on yours?

Answer: Me. It was like my favourite sport, food and favourite drink and a picture of me and yeah.

Question: What was the best thing you ate in 3rd grade?

Answers: Pepperoni pizza. And waffles, whipped cream with a turkey sausage.

Question: What didn’t you like about 3rd grade?

Answer: What didn’t I like about 3rd grade? All the boring home work that they gave you.

Question: Which is better, Harrold or Spiritridge school?

Answer: Spiritridge.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because the playgrounds are better. Ummmm. What did I say? And the food tastes a lot better.

Question: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your year in 3rd grade?

Answer: There’s nothing else. No. Not really. Not that I can think of.

Wow. That was like pulling teeth. So there we go, an equally insightful account of the academic year from Harry. I feel like we’ve really lived through it with him. Which technically we did but you know what I mean.

I’m 9 nearly 10 most of my freinds have a phone. They always ask what my phone number is on the bus. I can’t tell them I don’t have a phone but I wish I did. Read on!

Let me start of with how much money a phone is. A phone is a lot more money than I have. I’m 9 I go to school you don’t get paid for going to school. You should. It’s hard being a kid. We should get paid for living through it. In the next paragraph I will tell you how educating it would be and it would ceep me quiat.

A phone would ceep me quiat and educate me. When I’m at home I’m always bored. At home other than home work I’m not doing anything educating. I can download apps that help me lern more.

Now you know why I want a phone. A phone will ceep me quit and educate me. A phone is a lot more than I have I hope I get a phone.

From Harry

 

Today was Toby’s last day at pre-school. We thought it was his last day at pre-school last year but oh-no, we moved across the pond and he did it all again.

Across this additional year he has progressed very well though. His writing is very good, he recognizes his letters, can count to infinity and nine and make wonderful pictures and arty, crafty stuff!

In this post we find out what really happened this year from Toby’s perspective through a series of challenging questions! All answers are his.

Question: It was your last day at pre-school today – how did you feel?

Answer: Good and weird. Weird because I will keep on asking when is I’m going to pre-school next.

Question: Who did you make friends with this year?

Answer: Ian, Theo, Ryan G, Alex and Lucy. Oh and Ben. And Tien.

Question: What did you enjoy the most this year?

Answer: That I made lots of friends.

Question: What was the worse thing about pre-school?

Answer: I kept on forgetting Ian’s name.

Question: Did you get into lots of trouble?

Answer: Nah.

Question: What was the best thing you did at pre-school?

Answer: Playing outside. And playing tag and hot potato.

Question: What was the best thing you ate at pre-school?

Answers: Oriole cookies.

Question: What didn’t you like about pre-school?

Answer: I do not know.

Question: Which is better, Harrold or Spiritridge pre-school?

Answer: Spiritridge.

Question: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your first year at pre-school?

Answer: No.

So there we go. I’m sure we all feel much closer to Toby and the experience he has had this past year now that he opened up to us. Sometimes emotional, sometimes funny, often deep and occasionally sad but always very insightful and revealing. Thanks Toby. And thanks for making friends with someone who wears knitted versions of every piece of clothing – most amusing!