Wednesday, August 31, 2011

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL RITUAL

Every year on the first day of school my mother, usually a nice and kind woman, tortured me.  I'm not a morning person and never was, yet she insisted on waking me with a cheerful little ditty that went something like this:

 Wake up, wake up, you little fool.
It's time to get up and go to school.
Wake up, wake up, you little fart.
It's time to get up and make a start.


My senior year of high school that song got her hit with a shoe.



 My own back to school ritual with my children is far less annoying.  Well, I think so anyway.  They may grow up and tell their therapists about it.  (Hell, that's what moms are for.)


Just before my son started kindergarten, my brother-in-law's mother (thanks, Alice!) gave me the idea of taking a picture on the first day each year in the same location.  That way it's easy to see the changes in height and build from year to year.  I've done it ever since for both my kids.  It may get me a shoe in the face when my son is 17, but for now I outweigh him and can force him to do as I please.

Over the years, The Professor has gone from smiley to stoic (but I can always count on him to take an acceptable picture with a pleasant expression).

Kindergarten

Second Grade

Seventh Grade


And Foghorn has gotten more...well...Foghorn-like.

Preschool

Kindergarten

Second Grade (and crazy as a loon)


Over at JDaniel4's Mom there's a nice set of links to other mothers' back to school rituals.  Hmmmm...I think I have a couple ideas for next year (starting with a suit of armor for protection against flying shoes).


You might also be interested in:

No School on Mondays?

I Heart Kids Consignment Stores.




    

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, Shannon, I wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog and for your kind comment.

I never thought about doing the first day of school pic because my kid's are homeschooled and it would be a pic of them still in pj's..lol. I will have to come up with a different ritual.

Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Oh, The Professor looks so old; Foghorn hasn't gotten to that stage yet.

And that's a cute little song that my mother used to sing to me.
Mom

Anonymous said...

loved this post, your Mom's ditty was hilarious.

Kathie said...

Shannon,

I think we have the same mom. My mom used to wake me up singing "It's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the morning" in a sing song voice. I would also get the blanket pulled off of me when I didn't get up.

Luckily I'm a morning person now (as I get up at 4:30 in the morning to go to work), but my 2nd grader is NOT a morning person. It's only fitting that his father have to deal with that since he gets it from his father :-) . And I take a first day of school picture each year too, it's just not always in the same place. That would have been a good idea.

Unknown said...

I love your pictures! I don't think I would have liked that rhyme either.

Thank you for linking to Back to School Traditions.