Wednesday night was the graduation ceremony for our preschoolers. It’s a fun night, the preschoolers get dressed in caps and gowns and parade into the room. The room is filled with their parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, teachers, friends, and pretty much anyone else in the neighborhood that knew the kids. This year we had 9 kids graduate and over 95 people showed up for the ceremony.
The parents are my favorite to watch. They all bring video cameras, digital cameras, instant cameras, picture phones or anything else that they can use to turn it into a Kodak moment. Some of the parents get teary-eyed, but most just sit there grinning from ear to ear.
This year as a child’s name was announced, a mom yelled out “That’s MY baby!” To which the kid responded, “Mo-om, shhhh!”
During the ceremony, each preschooler gets to stand up and say their name, how old they are, what their favorite thing about preschool was, and the name of their kindergarten. I love this part because after the first child answers the favorite thing question, all the kids just copy their answer. And the kindergarten question always gets some fun answers. One year a little girl answered, “I don’t know the name, it’s the one on Dale street.” Other answers have included, the school my brother goes to, kindergarten, I’m taking the bus, and school.
This year was a fun for me. I teach the toddlers. They start in my class at 16 months old. This year 2 of my original toddlers, from my first year of teaching, graduated. It was pretty amazing to think that I have seen these babies go from wobbling around my room and only knowing 3 or 4 words, to writing their names and beginning to read.

(I held off posting this because I was trying to find a picture of one of my toddlers at 16 months and one of him now, but I couldn’t find it. Doh.)