On to Pre-K

I know what you're thinking: No way is anyone letting this kid advance through the educational ranks! But, yes, despite some heavy duty problems this year, Riley was approved to move on to Pre-Kindergarten. His behavior aside, none of his teachers had anything negative to say about his academic progress this past year. While he may not always be the most eager student to draw or practice writing, they see that he gets it, understands and is super smart. He's more of an audio learner - preferring to talk about what letter words start with and sing songs about the alphabet. However he does it, though, he's proved himself to be bright and worthy of advancement.

We have high hopes for Riley in the coming year (yeah, I totally just jinxed it). But we know that he's rounding a corner and that the 5th year of life is way more reasonable than the 4th. Right? RIGHT??

To celebrate his promotion, Riley and his classmates at the Washington Child Development Center put on a Hawaiian-themed show. Yes, it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, thank you very much:



Here he is with Mrs. Lacey, who proved herself to be a very encouraging and patient teacher. Riley loves her lots and often cries that he wants her when he's getting busted at home. She's not his teacher anymore, but he still sees her around CDC lots, and always gives her big hugs and kisses when he does:
Ms. Kirts was Riley's other victim, er, teacher this year. He was quite challenging for her, but we hope that he wasn't the only reason she took a job elsewhere! I know Riley misses her lots and we hope she's doing great teaching art: