I've never seen such an unhappy bunch on the last day of school. I remember jumping and yelling and shouting on the last day of school each year, but that was definately not the scene when I picked up Christopher at school today on the last day of the school year. Most of the moms had tears in their eyes, as did Jean, the teacher and several of the children.

It was especially hard to keep the kleenex at bay when Jean started singing the good-bye song, which has a phrase, "Good-bye my Kindergarten friends, good-bye." Today Jean sang, "Good-bye my First Grade friends, good-bye" and there was an outpouring of tears.

As I told Jean today, it's hard not to worry that we've peaked in Kindergarten -- it's just hard to imagine a better elementary school teacher in the world. Our experience with her has been just that good. She creates a learning environment where curious kids can explore and where that natural curiosity is nurtured and guided. Everything is a learning experience there -- and the kids learn academics as well as how to navigate social/emotional situations, and how to take responsibility for themselves and their learning. The classroom is a place of mutual respect -- where it's easy to see how much Jean shows respect to the children, and she earns it back in spades. Of course, when I told her my fear of peaking so early with how fortunate we were to have her as a teacher, she laughed and said..."you just wait...I'll bet you feel the exact same way next year. But thank you."