Last week, we asked you to draw us pictures of your first day of school this fall. Or, in the case that your school hasn’t started yet, what you were looking forward to doing when school does start.
Here, to start us off, is a picture by Joe,
And as he usually does, Joe sent us a story to go with his picture.
Monday was my first day of Kindergarten.
We sat in the classroom and did things.
And we went outside to the playground. (see drawing)
There’s a yellow tunnel connecting two slides.
There’s also a swing set.
You need to take turns, if someone is in front of you.
At the other side, there’s a construction site.
They’re building new classrooms or something.
We sat by the curb and watched the workers work for a while…
That’s me under the big tree.
A is for the helper teacher Ms. Anguser.
B is for my teacher Mrs. Benner.
I think my first day of school was fun!
I like going to school. :- ) (see photo)
And here is the photo to which Joe is referring:
Now that is a boy who is happy to be at school. I love Joe’s drawing and I love his story and I love his photo.
Perhaps my favorite thing of all is how Joe labeled the teachers and himself in his drawing. I found this very helpful, and rather endearing.
Alden’s drawing also features the playground where she will soon be playing with her friends.
If you ask me, there are probably more kids on that jungle gym than good Montessori protocol would probably allow.
But you didn’t ask me.
On Sunday night, we hosted Alden’s friend Iris for a sleepover. After breakfast yesterday morning, we took out some paper and did some drawings.
Alden decided to do another back to school drawing.
In this one, our family is on the way to school. That vaguely oval-shaped object on the left is our car. You can see me clutching the steering wheel up front. You can see Kato strapped into his carseat in the back. And you can see Alden in the first row behind the driver. She appears to be standing. Which is not (for the record) acceptable Swanson family passenger protocol.
On the right are the two classes at FMS, primary with the red table and chairs, and preprimary with the green.
Iris drew a picture of her favorite part of school, namely, the playground.
Iris started kindergarten last week. Apparently, she likes it quite a bit.
And August, faced with the prospect of drawing what he was looking forward to at school, took a long, contemplative pause.
After a while, he took up his marker and went to work. Here’s what he came up with.
Asked to describe his work, August explained that, lacking experience from which to draw, he has no choice but to think of school as a shapeless void devoid of meaning and structure. The wild lines above are a reflection of that great unknown.
Fortunately, he seems undisturbed at the prospects of facing it one day.
Here is a drawing by Simon, who had his first day of kindergarten last week. Simon, who is extremely interested in safety, was sure to include a stop sign on the side of his schoolbus.
Apparently, the school bus driver is saying something loud through the top-mounted loudspeaker. I wonder what it is. Perhaps Simon will write in and tell us?
Here is my drawing. Because I am an adult now, am not going to school this fall. But here is a drawing of what happened every fall that I did go to school.
Demerits. Detention. Duncecap. It’s all one long blur of bad behavior. Here’s some advice, kids: don’t follow my dark path. You’ll end up living in a barn married to a woman who does nothing but draw pictures all day long.
Speaking of which, here is Robbi’s back to school drawing.
Robbi is of the opinion that busses must all be sad to be full off jittery, jumping kids full of wiggles on their first day back to school.
Robbi often empathizes with inanimate objects. It is one of her more endearing qualities. Every time she has to throw away an old toothbrush, she gets weepy.
I bet she was a mess in school. Eventually pencils get worn down to nubs. Eventually, erasers get erased away to almost nothing. I bet she has a box somewhere, high on a closet shelf, full of pens that no longer work, scissors that no longer cut, and the empty husks of tape dispensers that long ago dispensed their last tape.
Somehow, this cheerful post has taken a decidedly dark turn (thanks a lot, Robbi), and so I will end it now.