Last Few Days of School

We all know that the last few days of school is when all the partying happens. Today Nathan's class celebrated his birthday. Nathan has a summer birthday. So he asked me if he'll get to celebrate his birthday with his classmates. I told him no, because he's not in school when his birthday comes around. He was sad and said...."but Mom. I want everyone to sing to me and I want to wear the paper crown!" So...I emailed his teacher and she of course was delighted to celebrate his birthday. All this fuss for a paper crown.


Now, yesterday Thomas' class had an awards ceremony. Thomas' school is very tough academically and everything centers around academics (of course!) But, his teacher said that she wanted to give the kids awards based on their personalities and to encourage their strengths. She was going down the list and finally she got to Thomas. Now she announced that she had saved him for last on purpose. All the other kids started shouting and laughing and saying "it's because he's funny! Thomas is crazy!" I smiled and thought...Okay...so I have the class clown.
Well Thomas' award was for "Being able to find other places more interesting than what I'm teaching." I was thinking...what??? Mrs. Martin went on to explain that when she is teaching she can see the moment Thomas tunes her out. She said he never is disruptive or disrespectful. He just finds something better to think about. I was thinking...."Great....this is just a fancy way of giving my kid the slacker award. Congratulations Thomas on being a great slacker!" :-) She then went on to say that he amazed her because he was never lost and when she would ask him a question he knew the answer. Alrighty then...maybe this award is legit. Anyway, it was a cute ceremony. She played a video for us that had pictures of all the things the kids have done this year. Throughout the video she was asking kids what their favorite part of 1st Grade was. They gave all sorts of answers like...math, science, making friends, field trips, lunch, recess.....again she saved Thomas for last. His answer??? The best part of 1st grade.....Summer break.

Thomas and one of his classmates, Paige. She is also in our ward so he knows her pretty well. She's the other class clown.