T H E 6 T H F L O O R

Life in 6 Land

Category Archives: Zachary Stephen

Interested in Scouting

It was the annual open house at my son’s school last night. He is 6 years old, in kindergarten with an excellent teacher! Working in his class one day a week allows me some time to see what sort of progress he is making, when compared to his other classmates. At times I have been very impressed at what this little sponge is soaking up! In my opinion, he’s probably one of the top kids in his class when it comes to the “basics” of what kindergarteners should know before they move on to first grade.

I know many parents will say their son/daughter is doing their best or the best in the class. I am sure my opinion comes as no surprise. He enjoys school, then again didn’t we all at that age? The open house was also a time to see projects the kids had been working on, some of which I had not seen in the time I have spent in his classroom. He was excited to show my wife and I what he could do and who some of his friends were.

The highlight of the evening for him, as it was for most of the kinder, was the egg drop. The rules were simple, devise a way to prevent your egg from breaking when dropped from the school roof. The dimensions of your “delivery package” could be no larger than 7″ x 7″ x 7″. The box we used was 7″ x 7″ x 4″. My wife cut two plastic water bottles in half, secured the egg in the middle of the bottoms and taped them together. The bottle was then pushed diagonally into the box with padding surrounding it. We then taped the box shut and placed his name and teacher on it.

His drop was successful, the egg did not break and he was awarded a “My Egg Did Not Break” certificate for the efforts. He was quite excited about the success! For me the highlight of the evening, aside from watching my son run around with a big smile on his face, talking to classmates was visiting with the local assistant scoutmaster of the local Cub Scout Pack, who had a table set up and was fielding questions.

Years ago when I was in elementary school I was involved in Cub Scouts with friends I went to school with. While I never made much past Wolf or Bear, I did have a great time from what I can recall. I do vividly remember the Pinewood Derby and making my racer. Along with this event there were many other  things I learned that have remained with me growing up. I feel this experience is invaluable for young boys growing up.

Although looking over the awards some, of them don’t make much sense. For many of the awards, you must accomplish a specific number of tasks. I believe growing up I was too involved in sports to make time for Cub Scouts, thus ending my scouting. For my son, he is curious about many things, many of which are encompassed in scouting. I am a bit confused not seeing any sort of Morse code award that falls under Language or Communication. Okay, so maybe my amateur radio bias is showing through.

At any rate, I spoke with my son last night and showed and talked to him about some of what Cub Scouts participate in. He seems to be excited about this venture, as well as going into first grade. With any luck this will stick with us through the summer and come November he will join Pack 152 in Oakley and start working on his Tiger Cub rank on the road to advancement.

First Day of Kindergarten

First day of kindergartenIt happens for nearly all kids, the first day of school. I can still see the picture my mom and dad took of me prior to starting Kindergarten at Painted Rock Elementary School in Poway. My teacher was Mrs. Kramer. Needless to say that was nearly 37 years ago. Wow, where did the time go?

Today it was Zoom’s turn to start forging his education trail. As with many parents you always want your child to excel and succeed. Hopefully that will be the case with my son as he will be one of the older (and taller) kids in his class. We made the decision to hold off sending him last year (4 year old, who would turn 5 in Nov) as I did not want him to be the youngest in his class. This is what I went through and while I don’t fault my parents at all, year later they wished they would have held me back.

So with that in mind we kept Zoom in pre-school for an additional year and I believe it was a very good decision on our part. He learned an amazing amount of material and made great strides in writing, shapes, pattern recognition and color. All these are basic educational tools children should know before they start school. With that in mind I have no doubts our son will do very good his first year in school.

Of course school is exciting, but more so when parents are involved. I am making it a point to be very active in his school classroom and with the PTA. I want to make sure he has every opportunity to excel, learn and develop as he gets older. Plus I think that is one of the cool things about being a dad, helping your son. My dad was great at this, even now I still turn to him for his wisdom and guidance, which helps me through every day life.

Unlike when I started school, times have changed. My wife had to buy an entire list of supplies for our child. With school funding continually being cut teachers are requesting students have their own supplies, outside of a pencil and paper. On top of that Zoom’s teacher, Mrs. Gaul is requesting $25 from each student that will go towards the creation of a scrapbook as she described it. This is something they will work on all year long and take home at the end of the session.

Today the transition was made and I believe it was not a difficult one. Zoom had been in daycare/pre-school since he was two and a half, so he has gotten comfortable with being away from mom and dad. Especially when we leave he joins the other kids and starts playing. He was excited to get to class today with his Scooby Doo lunchbox, oddly enough a kid in his class had the same lunch box. I think they will end up being friends. LOL. He put his lunch away and his snack in his “cubby” where all his supplies are. He found his desk and we helped put his name tag on him. We then had a family hug and kissed him good bye. No crying, no scene

Now we wait and see what all he has to say when he gets home. It will be a matter of getting a routine down in the morning to get up by 7:15, eat, dress and get out of the house. On Tuesday and Wednesday I plan on walking him to school or letting him ride his bike or scooter. It’s only about a 10 minute walk from the house. It beats the god awful traffic in front of the school. I am sure I will have more story and growing pains as we move forward.

Happy 3rd Birthday

So our son, Zachary (aka Zoom) turned 3 years old today. And yes, he is growing up quite fast. It seems it was only yesterday and he was a newborn. Thankfully we are done with the “terrible twos” and moving on. Lord only knows what we can expect.

In reality, he is a very good kid, thankfully he is better than some of his friends, or at least what we, as parents, can see. We had the party at Chuck E. Cheese last night. Zoom was excited! He and I spent about 30 minutes when we got there on some of the small rides and playing a few of the games. But at age three, I still think he is just a bit young for CEC.

He was simply spoiled last night with presents as well. I don’t ever remember getting the sort of stuff he did at 3 years old. His grandpa (mom’s dad) bought his a big H3 Hummer remote control car. Of course he thinks it’s great fun now. Just wait until I actually turn it on and he drives it. Although I think he is a bit young (toy was age 8 years and up) for the truck, no doubt we will be playing with it later this week.

So when you are old enough to read this Zoom, happy birthday son. You are the most important thing in my life!

Zoom – November’08

Wow! Sometimes it’s difficult to comprehend just how quickly times goes by. Usually, my wife is saying this and not me. Alas, I can make the confession here, on my site. My son is getting bigger and older. At the end of November he will be 3 years old. I know there are many who on the MC.net and QRZ forums who don’t know me from Adam. But there are also many individuals, some good friends, who have seen my son grow since the day he was born.

He is the latest image of “Zoom.” Yes, I still call him that, even though he name is Zachary. Sort of like when my parents called me , “Stephen Scott” I knew my ass was in trouble. So it only seems natural if I call him by nick nickname rather than his given name. Although at the tender age of almost 3 years old it seems like he is ALWAYS in trouble.

“Oh man!”and the $50 Popsicle

It’s funny what kids pick up and how quickly they say it. Case in point, yesterday I am playing an XBox game called Grid, it’s a racing game, my son loves it when I crash. I am driving and spin out or crash and yell, “Oh man!” Almost immediately he says the same thing. It was hilarious! He has not stopped now for two days, it’s his favorite saying recently. Kinda funny. I guess I must mind what comes out of my mouth now. Last thing I need is an “f-bomb” of “sh*t” coming from his mouth. Knowing my wife I would be the one in trouble, not our son. Guess she better mind her mouth a little on that Guilt Wars game.

As for the $50 Popsicle that is what we got last night for a trip to the emergency room. This seems to be a monthly occurrence. If I had it my way I would have stayed home and put the little guy to bed with some medicine. Then again, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. So I guess my diagnosis is not to be heard. So after he vomited (seven times by my wife’s account) it was unilaterally decided he should go to the ER.

Well, we go and he was fine after we got in the “big, red truck” for the 40 minute ride from where we live (and no it is not the sticks, but a damn long drive). So we get there and waited about 30 minutes and were admitted to a room. He was seen by two nurses before the doctor stopped by. We even had a nurse stop by who helped us last night, she remembered Zachary. Kinda funny. So he was given a 2 mg (one eighth) of a pill of Zofran, in order to calm his stomach, then given an orange Popsicle about 20 minutes later.

So for my $50 co-pay we got one orange Popsicle and a 2.5 hour trip to the ER. Today, the kid was fine. Got up, didn’t each much breakfast, I gave him some Gatorade instead of milk, he had a few bites of pancakes. He slept much of the afternoon from about 1045am until 2:45-300pm, a unusually long nap. Must have still been tired from the night before. He had a rock solid dinner, spaghetti and a few cups of milk. Hopefully he is good enough to go back to school tomorrow.