Finished Kindergarten

I can't believe my kids finished Kindergarten today! I've asked them
to stop growing up so fast, but they just won't listen! ;^)
--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net

WOOHOO! Way to go, Derek & Mariel! :-D That's great news, Seth.

Jennifer

"Seth Jackson" wrote in message
...

I can't believe my kids finished Kindergarten today! I've asked them
to stop growing up so fast, but they just won't listen! ;^)
--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net

Seth,

What a bittersweet event! It does go by way too fast. Thanks for
posting the pictures, your kids are just beautiful!!

Ellen
----------------
Erin 6/95
Bradley & Alex 10/00

Have fun in 1st grade! We are going into middle school - again ALREADY!!!
They had their physicals the other day, Kathleen is a whopping 5'1 1/2" and
113, Chris is 5 feet tall and 107 #. Both are in a swim club and swim 1.5
hours 3 days a week, the muscle mass is very obvious but wow!

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95

"Ellen" wrote in message
oups.com...
Seth,

What a bittersweet event! It does go by way too fast. Thanks for
posting the pictures, your kids are just beautiful!!

Ellen
----------------
Erin 6/95
Bradley & Alex 10/00

Shirley, that's amazing! :-D My twins (they turn 11 in a couple of weeks)
haven't had their growth spurts yet. They're still well below 5 feet and
hardly in the 60s poundwise. :-) One of Emily's friends turns 11 a week
after Emily, and said friend is * 5'9" *. It's remarkable (of course, her
parents are 6' and 6'3", but still!).

I'm only 5'3", but Tim is 6'3", so it'll be interesting to see how we
average out, lol.

Are your kids swimming in a year-round club? What are their best strokes?
Janna just finished her first year of swimming for her college & survived.
:-) She even took up water polo in the spring semester and liked it (though
she didn't get a lot of playing time).

Jenny

"m.ackerman" wrote in message
news:wGYue.86964$_o.75700@attbi_s71...
Have fun in 1st grade! We are going into middle school - again ALREADY!!!
They had their physicals the other day, Kathleen is a whopping 5'1 1/2"
and
113, Chris is 5 feet tall and 107 #. Both are in a swim club and swim 1.5
hours 3 days a week, the muscle mass is very obvious but wow!

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95

"Ellen" wrote in message
oups.com...
Seth,

What a bittersweet event! It does go by way too fast. Thanks for
posting the pictures, your kids are just beautiful!!

Ellen
----------------
Erin 6/95
Bradley & Alex 10/00

Kathleen just tried on shoes today and now is officially in size 10 women's
shoes - the same size I wear and NO I WON'T SHARE MINE!!!! Next is the
bra's!!!! I told my friend that I'm going to buy more "grannie" one's so
Kathleen won't want to borrow them!

Swimming is year round. Kathleen is an all around good swimmer (hey with
size 10 feet she should be) but Chris is having some issues - his ADD is
getting the better of him. My DH was an All American swimmer in HS and I
used to teach kids at the Y to swim, so we are going to do some one on one
to help him get up to the level. He was doing well before and moved up
fairly quickly but either is getting burned out or something. We'll see.
His coach did say that he had a great breast stroke kick (that at least is
something - the most difficult thing is the easiest for him - go figure).
Growth spurts come at all times. Kathleen has been sleeping in these days
until 9:30 or 10 AM so I can't imagine how tall she'll be when school
starts. My 5th graders at my school range anywhere from little tiny one's
to Kathleen and Chris's size. And I just saw one of my students at Wal-mart
today and he has sprouted at least 3 or 4 inches!

Middle school should be interesting!

Good luck

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95



"Jennifer in Maryland" wrote in message
...

Shirley, that's amazing! :-D My twins (they turn 11 in a couple of
weeks)
haven't had their growth spurts yet. They're still well below 5 feet and
hardly in the 60s poundwise. :-) One of Emily's friends turns 11 a week
after Emily, and said friend is * 5'9" *. It's remarkable (of course,
her
parents are 6' and 6'3", but still!).

I'm only 5'3", but Tim is 6'3", so it'll be interesting to see how we
average out, lol.

Are your kids swimming in a year-round club? What are their best strokes?
Janna just finished her first year of swimming for her college & survived.
:-) She even took up water polo in the spring semester and liked it
(though
she didn't get a lot of playing time).

Jenny

"m.ackerman" wrote in message
news:wGYue.86964$_o.75700@attbi_s71...
Have fun in 1st grade! We are going into middle school - again
ALREADY!!!
They had their physicals the other day, Kathleen is a whopping 5'1 1/2"
and
113, Chris is 5 feet tall and 107 #. Both are in a swim club and swim
1.5
hours 3 days a week, the muscle mass is very obvious but wow!

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95

"Ellen" wrote in message
oups.com...
Seth,

What a bittersweet event! It does go by way too fast. Thanks for
posting the pictures, your kids are just beautiful!!

Ellen
----------------
Erin 6/95
Bradley & Alex 10/00

Cool. :-) LOL on the shoes...so far Emily's feet are still smaller than
mine (barely), but I'm hoping she'll shoot right past my size and keep
going. :-D

I bought Emily some "preteen" bras a few months ago, but it turns out after
a few days of excitement, she stopped being interested in the fuss (and mild
discomfort) of wearing them. She's back to undershirts. ;-)

Good luck with Chris and his swimming. Swimming is such a great sport,
reliant as it is upon each athlete's individual performance & desire to beat
individual times. Sounds like a good relaxing atmosphere for Chris, too. I
know Janna used to express a lot of her frustrations during her practices.
*LOL* :-)

My little baby Katie turns 7 on Sunday!!! :-O Time truly is speeding up, I
don't care what the scientists say!

Jenny

"m.ackerman" wrote in message
news:t5nve.90504$_o.4197@attbi_s71...
Kathleen just tried on shoes today and now is officially in size 10
women's
shoes - the same size I wear and NO I WON'T SHARE MINE!!!! Next is the
bra's!!!! I told my friend that I'm going to buy more "grannie" one's so
Kathleen won't want to borrow them!

Swimming is year round. Kathleen is an all around good swimmer (hey with
size 10 feet she should be) but Chris is having some issues - his ADD is
getting the better of him. My DH was an All American swimmer in HS and I
used to teach kids at the Y to swim, so we are going to do some one on one
to help him get up to the level. He was doing well before and moved up
fairly quickly but either is getting burned out or something. We'll see.
His coach did say that he had a great breast stroke kick (that at least is
something - the most difficult thing is the easiest for him - go figure).
Growth spurts come at all times. Kathleen has been sleeping in these days
until 9:30 or 10 AM so I can't imagine how tall she'll be when school
starts. My 5th graders at my school range anywhere from little tiny one's
to Kathleen and Chris's size. And I just saw one of my students at
Wal-mart
today and he has sprouted at least 3 or 4 inches!

Middle school should be interesting!

Good luck

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95



"Jennifer in Maryland" wrote in message
...

Shirley, that's amazing! :-D My twins (they turn 11 in a couple of
weeks)
haven't had their growth spurts yet. They're still well below 5 feet
and
hardly in the 60s poundwise. :-) One of Emily's friends turns 11 a
week
after Emily, and said friend is * 5'9" *. It's remarkable (of course,
her
parents are 6' and 6'3", but still!).

I'm only 5'3", but Tim is 6'3", so it'll be interesting to see how we
average out, lol.

Are your kids swimming in a year-round club? What are their best
strokes?
Janna just finished her first year of swimming for her college &
survived.
:-) She even took up water polo in the spring semester and liked it
(though
she didn't get a lot of playing time).

Jenny

"m.ackerman" wrote in message
news:wGYue.86964$_o.75700@attbi_s71...
Have fun in 1st grade! We are going into middle school - again
ALREADY!!!
They had their physicals the other day, Kathleen is a whopping 5'1 1/2"
and
113, Chris is 5 feet tall and 107 #. Both are in a swim club and swim
1.5
hours 3 days a week, the muscle mass is very obvious but wow!

Shirley
Chris and Kathleen 1/95

"Ellen" wrote in message
oups.com...
Seth,

What a bittersweet event! It does go by way too fast. Thanks for
posting the pictures, your kids are just beautiful!!

Ellen
----------------
Erin 6/95
Bradley & Alex 10/00

I'm right there with ya Seth! First grade! I can't believe it. It's
all happening too fast. I need to get back to work on that time
machine...

Stephanie
Jake and Ryan 9/3/99

On 5 Jul 2005 07:43:21 -0700, "Steph" wrote:

I'm right there with ya Seth! First grade! I can't believe it. It's
all happening too fast. I need to get back to work on that time
machine...

Stephanie
Jake and Ryan 9/3/99

I see your kids are less than a month older than mine. What's the
cutoff date in your school district? Ours is Dec. 1.

Our kids were both the youngest in their respective classes. I
noticed there were an awful lot of parents holding their kids back a
year to avoid having them be the youngest.
--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net

I know you didn't ask me... but, our cutoff date is Oct. 1. Our kids all have
June birthdays, placing them on the younger end of the spectrum, but certainly
not among the very youngest-- who, like yours, didn't turn five until K was in
session. My girls did fine both socially and academically. I was actually
kind of worried about the kinds of friends that they would make. But I spent
some time in each of their classrooms and they actually gravitated toward the
personalities that I really liked!! I know that won't last forever, but for
now I'm pleased to see that we have the same tastes!!

I can't believe mine are going into first grade, either. K still sounds like
they are little kids. First grade sounds like serious school!! Not that K
wasn't-- my how times have changed. One of my girls actually had the same
teacher for K that I did and I talked with her several times about how much
pressure is on the kids and K teachers now for them to learn the material.

I think lots of the younger kids do get held back. My girls both had lots of
August and September birthdays in their classes--kids turning five as K began
and in some of those kids, it really showed. But in others, they blended right
in. I have a good friend whose son will turn five on Sept. 30 of this year--
so he would be the *absolutely* youngest in the class. He is bright, I think
and has done a fabulous job at preschool. In fact, his preschool teachers
urged her to send him to K, but after talking to some K teachers, she decided
to hold him back, not really because he would be at a disadvantage going this
year, but because the thought is that he will have a big advantage going next
year. He'll be bigger-- a plus for athletics when he gets to high school if he
chooses to play. He's on the small side now. He'll have another year to
socialize at preschool and learn some things that he hasn't picked up that some
kids enter K knowing. (For example, at our kids school, they were separated
into "reading groups" during the first week of school based on whether they
could spell their first names and whether they could identify lower case
letters. The ones that could do those things were put in one group and the
ones that couldn't were put in the other group. That kind of grouping scares
me a little, especially so young, because it makes you wonder if any of the
kids could work their way out of a grouping. Okay, I'm babbling now, I'll shut
up!) Ultimately, I think you have to look at your child and decide. My neice
was born on Oct.3 just after the cut-off date, so she was the oldest in her
class and she struggled in K because she was bigger (also more aggressive, but
that's another story) and because she got bored. So, I think she could have
safely started the year before and done fine. But, that wasn't an option.
Strangely enough, you can hold them back, but you can't have them tested to see
if they could start if their birthday is Oct. 1 or after. It's a tough
decision and its one I'm glad I didn't have to make after watching my friend
make it recently.

I'm glad to hear that other moms and dads out there are sad to see Kindergarten
end. Yet another milestone...

-Cindy (mom to Ashlyn and Allyson 6/99 and Jenna 6/03)

In article , lid
says...

On 5 Jul 2005 07:43:21 -0700, "Steph" wrote:

I'm right there with ya Seth! First grade! I can't believe it. It's
all happening too fast. I need to get back to work on that time
machine...

Stephanie
Jake and Ryan 9/3/99

I see your kids are less than a month older than mine. What's the
cutoff date in your school district? Ours is Dec. 1.

Our kids were both the youngest in their respective classes. I
noticed there were an awful lot of parents holding their kids back a
year to avoid having them be the youngest.
--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net