Trares
We finally made it.
It wasn’t always easy. There was some whining and some stubbornness among all of the achievements.
But this week, we said goodbye to first grade.
Anthony celebrated his last day of school, closing out the year with picnic and games, saying goodbye to his classmates. He’s excited for the summer and the potential of sleeping in for 2 1/2 months.
I would be too.
In the countdown to the final days, Anthony brought home a wealth of workbooks, old papers, projects and other assignments he had been working on throughout the year.
There was a lot to unpack, literally. I kept it all in a pile until we could decide what to save and what could go in the recycling bin.
That was the point I realized how much Anthony had grown from that August day when he bounded into his first-grade classroom.
One project his class had worked on was writing book — four or five pages of text with accompanying illustrations. The kids could write about whatever they wanted; the goal was rather to strengthen their sentence structure, spelling and idea of plot.
Readers of this column may recall when I wrote about a previous creation of his: “Nick at Night,” the story of a boy facing a monster in his house at night.
Well, his library has grown. A lot.
There’s one called “Walking Sticks,” a nonfiction piece that Anthony had to research himself. Only by going through the green-covered book did I learn that “Walking sticks live in temperate and tropical regions,” “Walking sticks eat leaves” and Their skinny bodies are brown or green. They look like twigs.”
Another book is titled “Olaf the Cat” — an homage to our 9-year-old tiger-striped cat. The story describes how Olaf’s birthday is on May 1, how he likes to lay in the sun and how much he loves to eat.
“I dream of fish. Not any fish, yummy fish!” Anthony wrote.
But the biggest collection — and the one that just blew me away — was a 16-book series of stories about “Star Wars.” Anthony has grown interested in the sci-fi epic recently, something I’ve been happy to cultivate.
So he’s written about his new interest. He has adventures with Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, sprinkles in characters such as BB-8, Rey and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Some stories look at what Luke got for his birthday, or a snowball fight between Chewbacca and Yoda.
Anthony even made titles for some. “Robot Party,” “Underwater Base” and “Bye Bye Zombies” were some of my favorites.
For a kid who, last August, would rather clean his room than pick up a book, I’ve been impressed by how his teachers have let his imagination run wild. Not only has it helped his writing, but Anthony has found that reading can also be fun — if you find the right material.
As I look back at the year, that’s what I’ll take away most. Anthony has grown as a learner, and discovered the joy that comes with it. I can’t wait to see what he does in second grade.
Don’t tell that to Anthony, though. He’s got a few months of summer to enjoy first.
Ryan Trares is a senior reporter and columnist for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
