Sebastian – The Kindergartener

Hip hip horay! Sebastian is a kindergarten graduate! He had quite an academic year filled with many exciting milestones. We actually did the entire last quarter at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. His teacher, Mrs. True, sent assignments and met virtually with the class through Zoom meetings. It was definitely a challenge but we worked hard and pretty much turned in all assignments. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much talk about a graduation celebration but I still had to do my own little celebration for this amazing young boy! I ordered him a cap and gown on Amazon and we had a fun/not so fun photo shoot featured at the end of this post.

I actually still remember Sebastian’s first day of kindergarten. It was just him and I that day, normally Rosie and Alex would join us for the drop off but for his first day I just wanted it to be us. It was a new school for us so I was a bit nervous for him. He was so so excited though, even amongst the chaos the first day always brings, you know…finding parking, finding his class, turning my mamarazi mode on and then having to leave him there! Ahhhh!! He, however, was just happy to feel grown and be going to school full time now.

It actually wasn’t until I got home that day when everything just hit me. I sat at the quiet kitchen table and started crying and crying! I didn’t expect to feel this way since we went through this before with preschool but kindergarten just felt totally different! He would be gone ALL day!!! Then, I found out that I couldn’t walk him all the way to his class (like I did with preschool) so I was freaking out!! I later found out it’s a security precaution the school has to ensure only authorized personnel enter the school. But at the moment I panicked and thought what if he gets lost, what if he goes somewhere else, what if there’s a back gate he can escape from?! AHHH! After I stopped crying I seriously went online and started researching other schools because (amongst other things) I was paranoid and ready to transfer him somewhere else!!! Hubs being hubs teases me and says “Ya Mimi, just cut the cord! Things will be fine!” Luckily he was right, I just had to be patient. Eventually changes were made within the school that tamed my mama bear instincts.

Sebastian actually still loves math and numbers. It makes us so happy to see him so eager to learn math, definitely something he picked up after his dad and not me…no way Jose, math is not my thing! He dislikes reading and writing though. He struggles with it the most but hopefully with our encouragement he will learn to love it. Again something he might have picked up from dad and not me…I absolutely love to read and write!

We had a few incidents in school this year. Ranging from learning to keep his hands to himself to using hand gestures to express frustration. He pushed his classmate and gave a substitute teacher the middle finger when she tried to correct him. Yeah….YIKES!!! It left hubs and I scratching our heads. It’s definitely not something we teach at home but we know he can be easily influenced by his surroundings so we had to become more strict on limiting his exposure to age appropriate shows, especially Youtube content.

I thought hard about talking about this in my post but I like to keep it real. Hubs and I are very involved parents and Sebastian is a very smart and loving boy. We talk to our kids a lot and we especially preach good behavior. When we asked Sebastian if he knew what the middle finger meant, he didn’t know. We then asked him where did he learn it from and he said he might have seen another kid at school do it or on Youtube. Either way, it’s not acceptable and dang right we grounded him! Thankfully he didn’t have any more incidents at school, now I just had to worry about getting him to school on time to avoid getting kicked out. Yeah…that was an incident they addressed ME on. Getting three kids in the car and out the door on time is such a struggle but thats definitely a conversation for another time.

As I was writing this post I asked Sebastian what was his favorite kindergarten memory. Without hesitation he said it was when they went on a field trip! They went to the Pumpkin Patch and was so excited to get on a school bus! He mainly talked about how cool the bus was and how fun it was ride in it. I almost had my own little field trip that day with Alex and Rosie. Yup, I was tempted to go to the pumpkin patch just so we can spy on him and make sure he didn’t get lost, or go somewhere else, or find a back gate to escape from! I was still working on cutting the cord like hubs says. Yes ma, I finally get it all. This whole letting our kids grow up is hard!

Sebastian’s favorite color is currently red, last year it was pink so we will see what he picks next year. HA! When asked what he wants to be when he gets older he always responds with something in law enforcement. He cares about money a lot and one time asked if he catches bad guys if he will get any type of cash reward. His favorite lunch is macaroni and almost daily talked about what he ate at school. Sebastian’s favorite thing about school was when they were able to play outside. He learned to climb the monkey bars during this time! Hubs and I were very impressed when he showed us, he’s actually pretty good!

Next year he moves on to first grade, he’s so excited! Alex will start preschool and Sebastian is already talking about how cool it will be to see his brother in school. Sebastian takes his big brother role very serious and I’m sure is eager to teach his brother the ways. We are naturally always proud of you Sebastian and we hope that you continue to find what interests you academically. Keep working hard while remembering to be true to yourself and your values. Congratulations on graduating kindergarten, you did it!!

Love,

Mama Bear Mimi