It has been an honor and a privilege to be on the staff at My Weekday School for 35 years plus two prior years as a parent. This is my 36th update for this school year and my final one as an MWS teacher. All of the children that have passed through the school have been special to me, but your children are doubly special because they are my last ones. I don’t know what is in store for me during retirement but I do know that a new chapter will begin. I’ll always be available to MWS so it’s possible you may occasionally see me next year.

This final week of school has kept the children busy. Some of the play choices have been:

Once the weather warms up in the spring, the PreK classes spend a lot of time on the patio outside their classrooms. On Wednesday, we took the opportunity to play on the patio for the first time while the older children were on the playground. The children had a great time playing with the tool bench, stove/sink, house, picnic table, trucks, basketballs, and chalk. Who knew that a toy tape measure would be so popular.

Below is a small selection of items that are always in my Circle Time bucket. Each item has a purpose and the children love to see them. I’ll try to give you an explanation for some of them and your children should be able to tell you about them, too.

The green glasses light up and flash; the ducks live in the trash cans (Daisy’s mother, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, Donald’s Daddy); sometimes the Ducks are found in the wrong trash can (always a mystery); Purple and Blue Sofia have arms that move - the children wave to them when the dolls wave; the two Sofia’s bend at the waist and the children bend over when the Sofias bend; when Purple or Blue Sofia need to pee, they sit on the white toilet and always use the sink to wash their hands; Sock Monkey visits occasionally and we admire his hair that stands up straight; Blue Spider has a pull string and he walks around on the rug; Yellow Fish has a pull string on the green worm - we watch him catch the worm when the string is pulled; the glasses with the bulging eyeballs help me see the children; the large ear is placed over my ear when I need the children to speak louder; the two diamond rings are very big and I wear them while I wait for my husband to buy me one for my finger - the children have told me that mine are bigger than their mommies’ rings; everyone loves Clifford.

When I need to entertain the children for a bit because it’s not time to move on to the next activity, my Circle Time bucket is always handy.

I will now share with you a personal story. When my husband and I moved into our house 45 years ago, we turned much of the grass of our small back yard into a vegetable garden. It was a yearly summer project to plant and enjoy the harvest. Over the years, as the surrounding trees grew in height and their roots took up much of the water, our garden patch kept shrinking and returned to grass. About the 10 years ago, it became a constant battle between us and the resident groundhog and rabbits. In 2020, my husband built a fence to surround the entire patch that we still tried to maintain. After we discovered that the groundhog was climbing over the top of the fence and eating all the small plants, we gave up entirely. I used to have many pots on my porch filled with flowers but the groundhog even came onto the porch and ate them. Last fall, I planted garlic because groundhogs and rabbits don’t care for them. At the beginning of May, I decided to repurpose most of my flower pots and plant potatoes. I’ve never planted either of these and have read and watched many videos to learn how to do it. I now have 16 garlic plants and 10 pots filled with potatoes. The pictures below were taken on Wednesday. I have to cut off the garlic scapes so their energy will go into producing bulbs. When the buds on the potatoes bloom, I will cut off the flowers so their energy will go into producing tubers. I hope that I will be rewarded in August with a garlic and potato harvest.

Have a wonderful summer and I hope to see you at some of the Tuesday night concerts at Hastings Park during the summer. Even in retirement, I am always happy to hear from you. Now I will sign off for the last time.