school

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Dear Jack: You’re Now in the 7th Grade!

12 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Welp, what can I say?…

You’re officially one cool dude this days.

Seventh grade has now begun- and you were definitely ready for the first day.

You’ve got the cool clothes, the cool shoes, and of course, the cool haircut from a real barber…

Not to mention, you’re just two months away from being a teenager!

I remember how much I loved the 7th grade. It was one of my favorite school years.

So I have to believe that you’ve got an amazing year ahead.

I’m specifically curious to see how your love of working on cars plays into your extra curricular activities.

Fun stuff!

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: You’re Now in the 2nd Grade!

7 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

I keep forgetting you’re not in 1st grade anymore!

This is now your 3rd year in Elementary School.

For this first week, they are still figuring out the bus schedules, so I have been walking you to and from school each day in order to keep you from being late.

Since we take the shortcut alongside the cornfield behind our house, I have to pick up you and carry you for a ways across the grass; so you don’t get all soggy like my boots do instead.

Once we get to the field, you always say, “Yay! The Daddy Chair!

Because I pick you up, then hold you just like a chair you would sit in, as we traverse the dewey grass.

It’s quite fancy.

You must be special or something!

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: You were Chosen as the 1st “Student of the Month” by Your Kindergarten Teacher (Despite My Parenting Style)

5 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack: You were Chosen as the 1st “Student of the Month” by Your Kindergarten Teacher (Despite My Parenting Style)

Dear Jack,

Mommy and I are proud of you anyway, but last Thursday, you came home from school and told us that your teacher chose you are the 1st boy “Student of the Month”.

That means your teacher saw something quite special about you and the girl in your class who were picked; based on you diligently doing your school work, participating in class, and being a positive influence on your friends.

At just 3 weeks into the school year, you had set enough of an impression on your teacher as the stand-out boy in class. Seriously, that’s a big deal!

Selfishly for me, it’s a confirmation for me that despite my imperfections as a parent in raising you, you’re still an intelligent, involved, and well-behaved little boy.

I have to admit that as your parent, you are technically a human experiment to me. You’re my first born. I will by default make more mistakes on you than your baby sister, who is nearly 5 and a half years younger.

Dear Jack: You were Chosen as the 1st “Student of the Month” by Your Kindergarten Teacher (Despite My Parenting Style)

When you were born, I was a much less experienced 29 year-old guy. Now, I’m a 35 year-old dad who has much more confidence as a parent.

It’s so important to me as your dad that I mold you into a well-balanced boy, and ultimately, a well-balanced young man.

Dear Jack: You were Chosen as the 1st “Student of the Month” by Your Kindergarten Teacher (Despite My Parenting Style)

This past weekend your Papa, Uncle Andrew, and I spent two mornings putting together the new trampoline Nonna bought for you and your Cousin Calla when you visit.

Finally, the time had come to try it out.

You and I played rough for a solid 20 minutes or so before I finally wore you out. I caused “earthquakes” (by jumping hard right next to where you were standing), I wrestled you, and I let you ride me like a bull.

That’s how I like to raise you. I like to show you unexpected adventure. I want you to be wild and crazy. I want you to be dangerous with me, yet hopefully not get injured too badly in the process. I want you to be… a boy.

And then I want you to return to school the next day and convince your teacher that you are still the best behaved and most involved boy in class.

So far, my plan is working.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: You Started Kindergarten This Week, Exactly 30 Years after I Did

5 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack: You Started Kindergarten This Week, Exactly 30 Years after I Did

Dear Jack,

Exactly three decades ago in August 1986, I began Kindergarten back at Forest Avenue Elementary in Fort Payne, Alabama. I remember how much I cried, begging your Nana (my Mommy) not to leave me there.

She said, “Oh look, it’s Heath Owen. He’s the son of lead singer of Alabama (the Country music group).”

Somehow that distraction helped ease the chaos in my mind. After all, “Roll On Eighteen Wheeler” was, by default, by favorite song around that time.

I will quickly acknowledge that your first day and first week of Kindergarten have been nothing like that. Instead, you have been literally and figuratively hopping to go to school.

You love it!

Granted, you have been in daycare, and then preschool, since you were 7 months old; which was 5 years ago.

So for the past 5 years of your life, it has been completely normal to spend most weekdays with a teacher and other students.

Simply put, you were more than ready to start Kindergarten this week. I know you’re going to have a very exciting year!

It just so happened that your first day of Kindergarten was also your sister Holly’s first day at daycare.

She’s only half the age you were when you started going to preschool. There’s no doubt it’s a heavy psychological thing for a parent to drop off their baby all day, for the first time. It’s just not easy.

But I know in the end, I will see the positive benefits that come from growing up in day care and preschool.

I just look at you. You are so bright, so creative, so eager to learn, so energetic, and yet so behaved for your teachers.

So as tough as it is to see Holly go to daycare this week, I know that you turned out just fine… and are going to make the best Kindergartner I know!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: You Started Kindergarten This Week, Exactly 30 Years after I Did

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Dear Jack: Your Self-Assigned Lego Homework Project

4 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: Your Self-Assigned Lego Homework Project

Dear Jack,

A week from today will be your last day at your preschool, with the big move into our new house being next weekend.

At night during dinner, all this week, you’ve been working on a special Lego plane. You instructed me to build something too, so I did.

Well, this morning you asked me to find a bag to put your plane in: The time had finally come to reveal your new creation to your friends and teachers at school.

So I found a Kroger bag and placed your plane inside it; keeping it up front with me in the car for the drive.

Once we arrived in your class room, you whispered to me, “Daddy, the plane.”

So I pulled the plane out and handed it to you.

Immediately, your friends ran over, crowding around you. They were sincerely and thoroughly impressed with your work.

“Wow, Jack! Is that Michelangelo in there driving it?” your friend Joshua asked.

Keep in mind, just a few weeks ago, you built that Lego hospital at school that all your friends protected.

I struggled to snap a few pictures of the event today, as it was truly a challenge for me to get a shot of you holding the plane without one of your friends blocking my view.

In the midst of all the I wanna see!’s from your friends, I realized that most them are a year older than you. They are 5; you are 4.

Witnessing this today made me sort of feel like the dad of Doogie Howser or something.

Even now, I’m thinking, “Man, my son diligently worked on a Lego plane that impressed his older friends. He must be a Lego prodigy… That’s pretty cool!”

Ultimately, this is one of those “dad moments” for me. I am proud of you, Son.

Love,

Daddy