Bay in Kindergarten

Bay? Really? What in the world could he have done to get sent back to Kindergarten?
Well, I will tell you.

Bay got to go on a super cool, I mean, serious work trip in January to the South Pole. My kids were psyched when he came home with pictures of all of his travels. OK, they mostly liked the pictures with penguins in them. So Jessa said, "Can Bay come to my school and show my class?" I did not want to impose. My compromise was that I would print a penguin picture, and she could take it and share it with her class. She did, and I explained it all to her teacher in a note.

The picture that started it all. . .

The next time I saw her teacher at school, she asked if Bay would be interested in coming to talk about his trip. So maybe it was not an imposition after all. Long story short, after a few weeks, many notes, and a false pregnancy announcement, last Friday, Bay went back to Kindergarten. He was set to speak to ALL 5 Kindergarten classes (about 135 kids!).

Spencer and I went too. Partly because I felt responsible for getting him into the whole thing, and partly because I am nosey and I hate to miss ANYTHING. . . And Spencer went because he had to (but he LOVES going to Jessa's school anytime). I must tell you that the 2 hours that we were rotating between the classes were absolutely priceless. Here are some highlights.

Bay thought a creative way to explain the South Pole was to contrast it with the North Pole. He learned that this was not a great idea because the first 25 questions related to Santa, reindeer, and presents. Lesson learned. He did not use that idea any more. And NO, he did not get to meet Santa Claus!

The questions were so precious. Jessa asked a question about the temperature at the South Pole. OK, she actually asked, "Did you freeze your tookus off?" He laughed and said, "Good question. Yes, it was very cold! 20 degrees below zero - in the summer!" One little boy raised his hand and said, "Do you mean Minus 20?" He said, "Uh, yes, I guess I do." Get it straight, Bay!

There was one slide that he put in to discuss the communications with the South Pole.

I have edited it to protect the identities of the people I do not know.

(Again, forgive my editing, I do not own photo shop nor do I have any idea what I am doing. . .)

So EVERY time he put this slide up, at least one, but usually several kids said,

"Hey, look, there's a dog!"

Did you notice the dog?

Because I did not!

But every class, Daddy had to explain that it was a toy dog because pets are not allowed at the South Pole. Cracked me up!

This speech was at an elementary school adjacent to an AFB, right? Most all of the kids are somehow connected to the Base. Most all of their parents are in the military, right? Well, in one class, a girl raised her hand. Bay pointed to her and said "Yes ma'am?" She said, "My mom is in the Air Force." Bay said, "OK, great." The next 5 hands were the same general idea: "My dad is in the air force." "My mom is in the air force." "My dad is in the army," so at that point Bay said, "Raise you hand if your mom OR dad are in the air force, army, navy, marines?" Whew! That could have gone on ALL DAY! One girl had a slightly different comment, she said, "I want to be in the Army." So Bay told her, "OK, I will send a recruiter right on over!"

At one point, someone asked if there were seals at the South Pole. Bay replied, "Yes." The boy said, "Oh, well, I did not see any pictures of any seals." Bay said, "Uh, well, I did not take any pictures of the seals." The boy said, "Well, why didn't you take any pictures of any seals?" Bay, "Uh, well, I guess I blew it." Priceless!

The kiddos were crazy observant in all the pictures, not just the dog one. They were picking little details out of pictures that we looked over. This picture for instance - it was taken at the Rookery where there were thousands of penguins with baby penguins.

Bay is pointing out that over his shoulder are tons of penguins. And everywhere you see a little black dot, that is a penguin. And again, EVERY class had at least one kid who said, "Look at that bird." Yep, they were focused on the bird flying just behind Bay! I never even noticed that bird until the first class. . .

And when he told them about the sun never going down while he was there, one child was very concerned about that. She asked, "Well, how did you know when to go to bed?" Bay assured her that all you had to do was look at your watch to figure that out.

But perhaps my favorite funny of the day came from my very own child. During the third class, Spencer leaned over and whispered, "Hey Mom, how come Bay keeps saying the same thing over and over and over?" Bless his heart! He knew he had heard this speech before! He was looking for some new material, dontcha know!?

All in all, I think Bay's presentation was a hit. He got several "That was awesome"s as we headed to the next group! Jessa was super proud of her Bay (although she referred to him as her grandfather to keep from confusing everyone)! And Spencer and I loved going from class to class with him. And after it was all over, Bay said he thoroughly enjoyed it! Maybe getting sent back to Kindergarten is not always a bad thing. . .