johnny

ABC Bootcamp

Kathleen Rauch14 Comments

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “P”.

Johnny’s Kindergarten class is in the middle of “ABC Bootcamp”, where a new letter and sound are introduced every day. For Johnny this means moving at warp speed through the alphabet.

Johnny is my only child to have attended Preschool. And to graduate from Preschool. Twice.

Johnny has a late summer birthday. So we made the decision to start Kindergarten one year later. Which is the positive way of saying we held him back, hence the 3 years of Preschool. It was a sage decision. While he had a blast in the program, the acquisition of knowledge was proving to be a slow process.

After Johnny’s first two years of Preschool, he recognized 3 letters. And one of them was “Q”. This completely baffled me. Because I am fairly certain you can make it through life without the letter “Q”.

None of this bothered Johnny. He was a happy kid. He went to Preschool 3. Then to Preschool 4. Then to Preschool 4+. He often asks to return to Preschool, where he only attended 3 hours/day versus the dreaded 6+ hours of Kindergarten.

He’s a bright kid. He can legitimately defeat my husband in strategy games like Catan and Carcassone. He is a whiz at putting together complex Lego sets. And, as far as book knowledge, things are beginning to click for him this year.

Kindergarten is moving at a rapid pace for the little man. A letter per day. 2 sight words per week. Numbers approaching 100. But he seems to be keeping up. He just needed that extra year.

This week, he was assigned the letter “P” for ABC Bootcamp. His teacher asked us to send an object that starts with “P”. Johnny would get to present the object to the class. We spent some time brainstorming and came up with some solid options.

Pumpkin

Pickles

Purple

Panda

Pig

But Johnny had his own thoughts. He wouldn’t share at first but assured me he had a great idea. As we packed his backpack, I told him it was time to tell me what “P” object he had selected for school.

Johnny told me he was going to draw a picture of himself. Peeing on a bush.

Hmmmm.

Well, it does begin with the letter P.

Figuring it best to preempt a phone call home, I used my super mom powers to redirect his energies. I subtly convinced him that there might be an even better option. One based on his favorite story.

P is for Pooh.

14 thoughts on “ABC Bootcamp”

  4. I only masquerade as Kathy Gaydos. My legal name is Kathleen Quinn, so I take exception to your comment that you can make it through life without the letter Q. I like to think of the letter Q as understated but mighty. 😎

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    • Johnny must have known the importance of “Q” from the moment he met you. You must have stolen his little heart at all those volleyball game 🙂

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  5. I so loved this story! But as a retired teacher, I would have loved the “peeing on a bush” option. It would have made a great story for the teacher’s lounge 😂

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    • Something tells me Johnny’s teacher has plenty of other story telling options. And, if you had been substituting for the day, I would have sent the picture 😘

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