Andrew finished first grade. Andrew spent most of the month telling everyone that he never had a preschool or kindergarten graduation ceremony and how sad it was. How he never graduated. .... typical Andrew.
He had an award ceremony that we all went to (a bit of an adventure since the wheel kept falling off the stroller ... I guess after 6 years, it will have to be retired). Andrew won a couple awards - the award for having good values (Character Kid, I think they called it, they awarded one to one kid per class for the year), an award for art (I was surprised by that one because the art he has brought home from school hasn't been very impressive this year), and I think an award for politeness or something like that. The only awards I would have shocked if he received them would have been handwriting or P.E., but I still think it's fitting that all the awards were about being nice. Andrew is a nice kid ... unless it's at home and then we're either very nice and helpful or not at all.
Andrew was sad the last day of school - he had a half day and we had Oreos waiting for him when he got home. After half an hour, he said he was already missing his friends, but he hasn't said anything since then, so I think he's fine. He brought home huge stacks of work for the summer - mostly math - and was very serious about how important it was to complete them. But ... I don't think he's done any since we've been home and cajoling him doesn't seem to work much.
We have been doing some home work this summer. He is slowly plodding along in his handwriting book. It is a chore to get him to do it, but his handwriting has already improved quite a bit. I don't know if it's because he's learning, or just slowing down and having guide lines that makes the difference. He also has slowly been working through a math workbook which is pretty fun, but he would rather do anything than what he has to do. He is pretty good at entertaining himself, however, so I'm mostly fine with it.
Andrew's favorite part of the summer has been learning new things. Specifically, we have been learning to cook. We did sandwiches one week and he has learned to make tuna fish (including using the can opener) and grilled cheese. He also learned to make scrambled eggs. The other day he wanted to learn to use the rice cooker and I forgot and started it without him and he was very unhappy with me. Whoops. We'll see how much energy I have, but I hope to teach him quite a bit this summer.
Andrew is still reading up a storm. He has gotten into Boxcar Children book and read the 19 we have at home and has spent the last week waiting for number 20 to get to the library so we can pick it up. In between times, he has also read a couple other books - Stuart Little and Matilda, which he seemed to really enjoy. He is reading Charlotte's Web now, which I think he likes, but he is going a little slower through it. He also has finally started enjoying reading Highlights magazine on his own and the Friend and also the scripture readers from the church.
Speaking of which, Andrew has started wanting to teach family home evening lessons. He likes to read a story from the Friend magazine and then asking questions about it. He also is very particular about bringing scriptures to church each week and sometimes reads them on his own. We are needing to get started on reading the Book of Mormon together.
The first week after school was out, Andrew had vacation bible school. I think he had fun, though he didn't really know any of the kids in his group, though there were a couple kids from school he sort of knew. He seemed to have fun and enjoyed the games and snacks and toys he brought home. They sang for us the last day and it was really nice and the boys seemed to like the songs.
Other than that, we have mostly been going to the pool, playing at home, doing work and learning new things. We have gone to the movies each week for the $1 summer movies. We watched Despicable Me 2 and also a Pirates movie. Andrew has really enjoying it because we have hardly ever gone to the movies. Andrew's swimming is improving just by going to the pool for a couple hours every other day or so. He likes to have swim lesson time each time we go but also enjoys diving for rings and playing with the other kids. He is a lot more comfortable in the pool.
Andrew got sealants at the dentist. They were recommending having laughing gas, but they ended up not even needing to turn it on because Andrew did it so well.
Oh, and now it's hurricane season. Guess who is nervous and wants an update each morning - Andrew, of course.
Fun Things So Far In June:
- Lots of pool visits
- Andrew sang for Father's Day - Katsu was out of town, though. He was pretty sad that Katsu was out of town and missed it.
- Vacation Bible School
- Visiting the dentist - no cavities!
- Picking blueberries - Andrew was picking blueberries competitively with Seth. He wanted the most and really enjoyed it.
- Bird sanctuary - they were excited by the playground and running around to see all the birds. There was a little fossil dig there that the boys loved and found some more shark teeth.
- Beach - Andrew loved learning to use his boogie board and making lots of sand castles. We even saw some dolphins. Andrew was super excited after that and kept trying to see more.
- Aquarium - They had a dinosaur exhibit with moving (and one water-squirting) dinosaurs scattered around the aquarium, mostly outside. In addition to all the tanks inside, we got to see some water birds and crabs in the wild outside. The boys also loved touching the sting rays and the crabs inside.
- Movies - Despicable Me 2 and Pirates.
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