KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION
I can't believe it. Jared's signed up for kindergarten!
After many hoops and unforseen difficulties, it only took us about 2 1/2 hours to get him registered :) Ryan saved us by faxing Jared's birth certificate straight to the school. If he hadn't, we'd have had to register at a different school on a different day. Thanks, Ryan!

Jared and Zach had lots of fun. We saw two of his Primary friends there, and even our neighbor, Sister Kozlowski. She immediately whisked Zach off to play with Legos. Apparently she was volunteering to watch the younger siblings while parents took their kindergartners around to three stations.

First was gross motor skills. Jared had to stand on one foot, then hop back and forth between some dots on the floor on one foot. I had no idea he could do that, and I don't think he did, either! He looked pretty pleased with himself. He also had to cut along some straight and curvy dotted lines, which he did very carefully, and perfectly I might add. He even got to keep the scissors!

Second was a vision test. He looked through that binocular-thingy and told the lady about the drawings he saw (instead of letters). Then she showed him a card with the primary and secondary colors, and basic shapes. Of course he knows all of those (Zach does, for crying out loud!)

Third we got to visit with an actual kindergarten teacher! She had a card with all the letters on it, but mixed up. She said they aim for 15, but of course Jared knew them all (so does Zach, of course). Then they had numbers up to 7. She asked if he knew beyond 7. I said he can count to 100, so she pulled out another paper with numbers and asked if he could find 66 for her. He said, "Oh, there it is. I found 65 and knew it would be right after that." He also got to write his name, which he wrote as big as he could :) It was huge!
She gave him a "summer homework" packet. If he takes it to kindergarten completed, he gets a prize and a certificate. She also assigned him to start writing his name with only the first letter capital. That'll be fun for him to work on.

Poor Zach kept asking Sister Kozlowski if it was his turn yet. He really wanted to do all the stations, too. And would he have enjoyed it! I don't think he can hop on one foot yet, or cut so neatly with scissors, but he would have aced the other stuff.

Jared went home with a bag full of goodies. Besides the homework packet and scissors, he got a new book and a card game. We also grabbed a folder from the library, which also contained a book called, "Look out kindergarten, here I come!" Jared read it to me and Zach when we got home.

We also found out that he'll get picked up by the school bus for afternoon kindergarten, but he'll have to walk home or be picked up. And that's only for kindergartners. After kindergarten, there are no buses offered in our neighborhood. I guess we'll be getting a 2-mile walk in every afternoon!