Thumbs Up for Family Day

Every year in May the Lower School celebrates Family Day. It's a celebration by and for the students ---- their art fills the gallery and they sing and perform gym routines. Families bring picnics and in the afternoon there is a blow-up slide (that's the piece de resistance) as well as Italian ice and lots of kid-friendly activities.

If the weather were warm and dry, we'd be outside in the lush spring, with the woods and green fields around us. But we had no such luck this year. Despite the rain, there were families a-plenty and that's really the most important thing about the day. As you scan the crowd, you can see the children scanning back, looking for their parents and grandparents and then smiling a proud smile when they see their loved ones.

The gym show is always my favorite. Until you've watched 4 year olds perform synchronized somersaults, you haven't really lived. JT knows how much I enjoy the gym show and has been reporting back about the gym routine for weeks. He felt that the 3 year olds would be a disappointment.....I don't think he realizes how far being tiny and cute can take performers. He was suitably impressed by the jump-roping 3rd and 4th graders. And when he got up yesterday morning he drew me a map with instructions about where I should sit to get the best view of the 1st and 2nd grade gym drills. I knew I had done well when he spied me in the gym and gave me a thumbs up sign.
In the afternoon, the kids got to decorate their colored t-shirts. The theme of the day was "When I Grow Up" and that was the challenge for shirt decorators. JT went to the table and got right to work. He wrote "ARTIST" across the front of his shirt and then drew pictures. There are many things that I love about JT's school but none is more important to me than their commitment to the whole child. From weekly art class in the studio, to gym, music, library, computers, and foreign language, the school shows JT that his imagination and creativity is important. That emphasis reaps dividends now as his imagination flourishes and it sows them for a future when my son will be anything that he wants to be.
Maybe an artist?