Random Fodder

Sebastian gets on the bus at home

Sebastian is early in the pick-up route, so hopefully the pick-up time will remain fairly consistent throughout the year. Since he is early in the route, he gets picked up along with several "swimmers" who are dropped off at the middle school. This means that Sebastian gets to watch other kids get picked up and dropped off before the majority of the other elementary school children are picked up. In order to maintain the schedule, the bus driver waits at the middle school until the appropriate time to continue the route.

The "first day of school jitters" started to take hold of my wife (though I'm sure she'll deny that as a factor here), and she got nervous about Sebastian's ride to school. She offered to walk him to school and to let him ride the bus home. As I mentioned previously, I think the school bus ride is one of the coolest parts about starting school. Pre-school kids just don't get to ride on buses a whole lot, particularly without parents and with thirty to fifty other kids their age. Sebastian had been excited about riding the bus and he didn't want to give that up.

After some "discussion" between me and my wife over any last-minute changes to Sebastian riding the bus to school, we decided that, at least for the first day of school, we would stick with the plan. Sebastian and I headed out to the front lawn to wait.

When we got to the front lawn, our neighbor was out front taking pictures of her daughter. Sebastian was happy to see his neighbor friend and he posed for a couple pictures with her. They were both visibly excited about school. My wife came out with our camera and took several pictures as well.

The bus arrived and Sebastian got on without any trouble. He stopped on the steps to turn around for a few pictures, though I think his mind was more on the excitement of school than anything else. Once in his seat, he happily waved out the window and smiled.

Sebastian gets off the bus at school

My wife drove up to the school to take another picture of Sebastian as he got off the bus and entered school. I like this picture because of Sebastian's body language. He's leaning forward, which is a sign of confidence, plus it looks like he's hiking his pants up as if to say, "All right, I'm here. Let's get to work!" My wife gave Sebastian a quick kiss and he headed into school without hesitation. When my wife described it, she sounded proud of him for not being too attached, but I could also detect that hint of sadness that her son has gained yet another level of independence. To my knowledge, she got through the entire ordeal today without shedding a tear.

According to our paperwork, Sebastian was to be dropped off six minutes after school let out. My wife called the transportation department a few days earlier, and they revised the pick-up time by a substantial amount. They changed the drop-off time to one minute earlier. After orientation, my wife says that the bus driver confirmed with her that he would be one of the first to be dropped off.

Five minutes before dismissal time (ten minutes before Sebastian's scheduled drop-off time), I took Dylan out to the front sidewalk and let him play with sidewalk chalk while we waited for the bus. My wife came out with the camera closer to the scheduled drop-off time and took some pictures of Dylan while we waited. Dylan had a fun time playing with the chalk, though he's still too young to do much more than repeatedly rub it across the same three-inch square of sidewalk. Surprisingly, he only put the chalk in his mouth once the entire time.

Sebastian gets off the bus at home

By the time Dylan was done playing with his chalk, I knew that we had been waiting a while longer than I expected, but we were warned that during the first couple weeks of school that the times would fluctuate as the schedules were set into place. Fortunately, when you're one of the first to be dropped off, there shouldn't be much of a delay. Since I didn't expect to be outside for much more than twenty minutes, I had not put sunscreen on Dylan or myself. (Keep in mind that the sun and I have not been on speaking terms for ten years now due to irreconcilable differences.) Dylan does relatively well with the sun, however I and my skin are less than impressed with the extended exposure.

I decided to get out of the sun briefly by grabbing the mail and running it inside. I was shocked when I looked at the clock and noticed that it was forty minutes past Sebastian's scheduled drop-off time. My first thought was that the bus had come even earlier than anticipated, we had missed it, and Sebastian would be returned to school for pick-up.

Thankfully, the bus came just a few minutes later. The bus driver acknowledged that we had not missed him previously. Judging by the number of kids on the bus and reports from Sebastian, they dropped plenty of other kids off before Sebastian. We'll have to call the transportation office again to find out if this was a one-time deal, or if Sebastian will be dropped off that late during the entire year.

Of course, Sebastian was so much in awe of the bus-riding experience that he didn't mind or notice at all.

Sebastian's first day of school was a success in every way! For the past couple nights, we have been trying to get Sebastian to bed earlier so he can wake up early enough to be ready for school without rushing. For a family that is usually awake at 11 p.m. and rarely up before 9 a.m., this is a feat in and of itself. Sebastian had trouble getting to sleep so early, and he tossed, turned, and complained to my wife for an hour and a half before finally settling in and falling asleep. This morning, however, Sebastian woke up with plenty of time to spare. To my surprise and dismay, he woke me up at 6 a.m., well before the alarm clock was scheduled to go off.

Sebastian and I got kicked out of the bedroom for talking too much while my wife and Dylan tried to sleep, so we moved to Sebastian's room to talk some more about school and other goings-on in Sebastian's life. I briefly attempted to pick out school clothes for Sebastian to wear on his first day of school. As a note, I knew for sure that the selected clothes would soon be vetoed by my wife as soon as they were noticed, so I skipped that all-too-familiar process and sent Sebastian to his mother for wardrobe selection duties. Sebastian and I went to the kitchen and casually prepared and ate some cereal.

By this time, my wife was up and awake and helped Sebastian with the details of getting ready. My wife also verbally gave him the obligatory list of "twenty things to remember on your first day of school when you can't even remember to bring your own backpack with you." The way that mothers check, recheck, and rerecheck things with kids on their first day of school reminds me of all the procedures that astronauts have to go through from the moment they start getting ready to the moment of liftoff, except instead of sending a thirty-something into outer space, you're sending a five-year-old a few blocks away.

I also marveled at the sight of my wife writing Sebastian's name inside each of his shoes. You just don't see that every day — but if you do see that every day, you might want to get that person checked for OCD.

Sebastian is increasingly excited about heading to Kindergarten, and today we went to school for his Kindergarten orientation.

Originally, we were told that Sebastian would have to walk to school, but it turns out that he is able to take the bus. This will obviously be advantageous during the winter — especially for me and my wife, who would have to walk (or drive) to and from the school. Now, we get to stand out in the freezing cold during the winter and run back into the warmth of our house after the bus picks him up.

On the way to orientation, I rode the bus with Sebastian. He will be one of the (if not the) first ones to be picked up in the morning. A couple kids who went to pre-K with him also ride his bus, but they are picked up much later in the route. He noted this rather casually, so I don't think he really knows these kids too well.

Sebastian was excited to find out last week that his best friend from pre-school will be in his class. The teacher who gave him his Kindergarten entrance test will be his teacher this year. He got along with her well during the testing, and he seemed comforted that he "knows" his teacher already.

Orientation only lasted about an hour and a half, most of which we spent in a parents' meeting, filling out forms and listening to people talking about the forms we were filling out. I did convince my wife to apply for a newly created "Health and Wellness" committee . . . and by "convince," I mean "place the application sheet in front of and point out one particular committee." I'm apprehensive about the PTO, but the admission is cheap, and they have plenty of fun-sounding activities. We'll see how this pans out.

Tomorrow is the big day. Pictures will hopefully be posted then! I'm glad that Sebastian gets to ride the bus instead of walking. After all, what is a first day of school without getting on the bus?

The "I Did It!" Dance

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I had hoped for Sebastian to complete the Hooked on Phonics program before school starts. Mission accomplished!

As we normally do, Sebastian placed the last sticker on his Level 5 map, and then we did the "I Did It!" dance. I have included an animated picture here as a reference so that you can dance along at home.

Hooked on Phonics time can just be "reading time" from now on. I have selected 28 books for reading time that Sebastian should be able to read with minimal help. Sebastian is really interested in most of these books, and I think he is impressed with himself that he can read books that aren't part of the Hooked on Phonics program.

It's nice to know that school starts in less than a week, and Sebastian already has a solid set of reading skills.

Hooked on Phonics worked for Sebastian!

Loner

What's my high school stereotype? I took the What's My High School Stereotype? quiz, and here are the four stereotypes that scored 50% or higher:

1. Loner: 63%
2. Drama nerd: 56%
3. Geek: 50%
   Goth: 50%

Loner: I cannot disagree with being called a Loner. Without a doubt, I limited the number of friends I had in my own high school because I spent most of my time and energy with my church's youth group instead.

Drama nerd: I was in all (four) of my high school's plays, so I certainly would fit into the drama nerd group to some degree. As far as I can remember, however, none of us regular actors were a stereotypical drama "nerd" at all. We were all different types of nerds instead — my school just wasn't big enough to be that diverse.

Geek: Any way you slice it, "geek" fits me just fine. To tell you the truth, I was surprised that it only ranked third. I guess I just wasn't motivated enough scholastically to be a Geek over a Loser in this quiz's opinion.

Goth: Goth certainly did not describe me in school, nor does it describe me now. I think this option is the quiz's Achilles' heel. The closest I ever got to goth was wearing a black t-shirt with a witty saying on it.

I know by now you're asking yourself, "What's My High School Stereotype?" Find out!

You can view many more personality quizzes on the Personality Tests page.

4 levels down, 1 to go!

Yesterday, Sebastian finished Level 4 of Hooked on Phonics! Just one more level to go until Sebastian becomes a HOP graduate!

If you'll remember, Sebastian finished Level 3 of Hooked on Phonics in the morning of July 30 during Blogathon. That means he finished Level 4 off in just 18 days.

I'm encouraging Sebastian to finish Hooked on Phonics completely before school starts. As of this posting, there's about 18 1/2 days until school starts, so he could, in theory, accomplish this goal without much trouble.

Level 5 seems to be relatively short, and if I try my best to work with him each and every day, it's certainly a possibility. I'm hoping that if he can complete the program before school starts, he will have a confidence boost for his first day of school.