Five on Friday: School Memories

Things I remember about each of the grades my kids are currently in, starting with the oldest:

1. Eighth Grade: Big year for lots of peer-pressure style firsts.  Hooray, now I have a kid in that grade! Here's  hoping she emerges from her own mistake-making as unscathed as I did.

2. Seventh Grade: I had Scarlet Fever at the end of the summer (Yes, Scarlet Fever in 1986, not 1886) and couldn’t go to school until I got cleared by the doctor. My appointment (at which had my first urine test "I have to pee into what??") was on the first day of school, so I missed it that year. Who does that?

3. Third Grade: One of my favorite, most influential teachers. Learning was so creative and fun with her. She even invited us to her house for a party at the end of the year and she had a zipline off of her deck that was AWESOME.

4. First Grade: For every page in our Phonics books that we got correct our teacher would let us pick one dry roasted peanut or one M & M.  (Who does THAT?)Apparently Phonics was really my forte as I'd go up to her desk to get my workbook corrected and come back with cupped hands filled with food.

5. Preschool: We did a project in which we traced the letters of our names in the world’s most delicious paste and then stuck Froot Loops  to it. My Mother would never buy that "sugar cereal" so at night I'd pick them off from where it was hanging up near my bed and I'd stealthily eat them.

First day of Preschool (circa 1978?)