The school year for Alden and Kato is officially over. On Sunday there was a picnic celebrating the end of the year in which certificates and accolades from teachers were distributed. Kato was pleased to be named the playground imaginary ice cream distributor and accepted his congratulations with grace:
Alden was honored for making compelling conversation at the snack table, including questions like, “Do you have a favorite Georgia O’Keeffe?”
Once the picnic was over and everyone said their good-byes, it became quite clear to them that they wouldn’t be returning to school this week. They’re really going to miss their friends and fun at Friendship Montessori.
In fact, they’re going to miss school so much that they’ve demanded to be given jobs for the few weeks until we leave for Alaska. The students at FMS get assigned jobs every day, and it’s apparently something the kids look forward to with great gusto. Alden had brought home her “job bears” and Kato had brought home his “job kitty”. Alden realized that August didn’t have a job bear OR a job kitty, not being of age yet, so she drew him a job bear and demanded I cut it out for him (photo compliments of Alden as well):
I had put together the job board with all of the job titles I could remember from their reports on the car ride home. Jobs include “Book Selector” “Calendar Person” “Leader” “Weather Person” and “Clean-up”.
As you might have noticed, I forgot to include the most IMPORTANT job of all (how could I?!) – which Alden took upon herself to add:
Show and Tell, of course.
We’ve assigned jobs every morning this week after breakfast is over, and you wouldn’t believe the alacrity with which breakfast is consumed these days.
Even August gets excited about it, though I’m sure he doesn’t know why.
Since we’ve started the job board, Alden’s small bear has been given to me, and a new bear has been drawn for Matthew. Alden’s favorite job of all the jobs, of course, is giving out jobs in the morning.
Perhaps we have identified the future CEO of Bobbledy Books. We sure hope so.