Preschool Olympics

Every year Miss Kara does a special party/event for the last day of preschool. This year it was "Preschool Olympics." Soren hasn't shown too much excitement when it comes to preschool fun. He's always very subdued at school. In fact, throughout the year several different parent helpers would come up to me and say "Soren actually talked to me today!" followed by something like..."and he talked my ear off!" If Soren decides that you're OK to talk to, he'll talk...and talk! He's such a serious little boy and his talking is usually of a serious nature. And lately, I've noticed, he's got a lot to say. Anyway, like I was saying before, he doesn't usually get too excited about preschool. There's no doubt that he enjoys it though! When the last week of school came around, he couldn't stop talking about the upcoming Preschool Olympics. He was actually very excited to participate, and I made sure he was outfitted for the occasion. Unfortunately, his shoes were a bit too small, but with summer just around the corner, I wasn't about to run out and buy him a brand new pair of tennie's.

He was shy when we arrived at school that day, as many of the kids forgot to dress for the special event. He was one of only 3 or 4 that were in appropriate attire. The first thing they did was create their number tags. Soren picked the number 100. After that, the kids practiced for their end of the year program, ate snack, then headed outside to complete 6 different events. We all split ourselves into pairs and rotated around the yard.

Soren was VERY serious about doing his very best. He was definitely faster and more agile than many of his classmates. He's also one of the tallest and oldest. He completed each even with vigor, and hardly cracked a smile the entire time. But, I knew he was having fun.

One of the events was an obstacle course that was timed on a stopwatch. It started with climbing the wall on the playstructure (below). He finished in 20 seconds! Miss Kara said that was the fastest of all 3 classes! Many of the kids took over a minute to complete it.

Once all the kids were done Miss Kara orchestrated a little medal ceremony. As the National Anthem played in the background, Miss Kara put a medal on each child and we all clapped. Everyone was all smiles...mostly the parents.

The next evening was the end-of-the-year program and graduation. Soren doesn't graduate until next year, but he was able to participate in all of the songs. He sang every word and did every hand motion. I was so proud of him.