Summer vacation day one.

Heading out to Tohono Chul Park. We had not been before, and man have we been missing out!

The map of the grounds. We experienced about 10% of the 52 acres.

Pigeon enjoying Tohono Chul Children's Park.

Turner trying hard to not get wet.

Margot trying her best to not get wet.

A flying bug eating a crawling bug. It took nearly an hour.

Checking out a lizard next to the wall.

The three chose different animals to be, and these choices rotated. Sometimes Turner was a ferocious attack bird. Other times he was a tranquil turtle.

One of my favorite aspects of public education.

The diversity at Turner's school is remarkable, and one of our favorite aspects of his Cragin school experience. Andy and I have spent nearly all, okay all, of our public education surrounded by teachers, other students, administrative faculty, and/or other workers at the school that shared our race and had cultural practices more like our families' than not. At Turner's school he remains a member of the white majority, but he has the luxury of a range of racial identities and diverse cultural traditions from which to experience the world and learn.

Cragin's final school event happened when Nanny, Pa Pa, and Aunt Amy were here for my graduation. Perfect timing. In preparation for the culture festival, each classroom selected (or was assigned, not sure which) a culture (not a country) to study. Students were exposed to historical texts, folklore, traditional music or musical ceremonies, foods, art, and guest speakers (when available). Each classroom spent weeks reading about the selected culture and they were expected to reproduce more than a few cultural practices of art, music, food, and/or horticulture. The Rainbow Room studied Mexican culture. Turner doubled his Spanish vocabulary and brought home some great stories in the folklore tradition. He learned a traditional Mexican dance and performed two songs sung in Spanish at an assembly the night of the culture festival, captured in the video below. Each classroom provided an authentic food associated with their chosen culture and displayed all the children's projects during the learning unit.

Turner showed us first, with such pride, his bark art. The medium is bark and the tool is pastels. We'll be framing this one for our new house.

Next, he showed us his fish picture, which is related to los pescaditos, one of the songs kindergarteners performed at the assembly.

He posed first, then told us the story about the little fish. In his aquatic scene, he included a squid, an octopus, two swordfish fighting (the black in the middle), a sea horse, a star fish on a rock ("like the one me and Kilan saw in Mexico, though this one is five armed and not one hundred armed like the Mexico one"), and a fish we can't remember its name ("you know, the one we saw on Artic Tale that has the horn that comes up out of the water so that he can test the temperature of the air").

Turner performed some music for us, showing off all that he'd learned in trio this year, and then we headed off to the assembly.

Look how pimp he is with his hand low on Margot's hip (she's a Catalina preschool friend).

Margot's bark art picture.

In addition to some sweet smelling food and great music, we received leis and other festive attire.

The kindergarten report card.

It goes without saying, though I'm going to write it, kindergarten teaches valuable life lessons. In such a short time, Turner has learned to read: first letters, then sounds, next words, and now sentences. He went to school knowing how to count. Now he can do addition, subtraction in his head. He's learned to write, going from a sweet song for spelling his name to being able to write sentences with punctuation that implies a level of intonation. I'm impressed with how much he has learned, how exceptional our experience with a neighborhood school in Tucson, and how willingly Turner has approached the task of school. He's excited to share with us the skills and ideas he learns, with some prompting. He takes away the obscure facts related to the topic of conversation, kind of like Andy. So he can tell you lots of stuff about bats, oxygen, spiders, for example, but then he can always wow you with a little tid bit. Did you know that grey spiders lay 114 eggs at a time? Also, there once was a dinosaur the size of a chicken named Saltopus. Did you know that it could outrun the larger dinosaurs on its short bird-like legs? Did you know that the tarantula hawk (which I think we trapped in our kitchen window last week) got its name because, it lays a single egg on the back of a tarantula. Once it hatches the egg eats the tarantula for several days while it mutates into a wasp. It has bright orange wings that are much larger than its body, like a hawk. We've all learned a lot in kindergarten. We're so proud that Turner's desire to read has made him even more interested in learning. He sees the use of school and, therefore, has put his school time to good use. This, at least, is the message from Ms. Cipolla. She writes,

"Turner is a wonderful student who grasps concepts very quickly. His excellent work is a reflection of his attitude and effort. He has been a consistently well-behaved, responsible student who has demonstrated mastery of all basic kindergarten skills. His penchant for out-of-the-box thinking has earned him entry into the GATE program where I'm sure he will flourish. It has been refreshing to have a student who is totally invested in his own learning. Please encourage Turner to keep his work neat, paying close attention to the proper grip of his pencil/crayon (we've worked on that the whole year!) With his keen sense of humor and responsible attitude toward school, Turner will be a welcome addition to any first grade classroom. I will miss him greatly! Have a wonderful summer break!"

I feel like Turner was the teacher's pet. This stinks for the other kids who might not have gotten as much of her positive attention, but Ms. Cipolla helped us to cultivate a little fire this year. When we get home from school, he asks me to read his report card to him. So I explain the columns (semester 1 and 2), the rows of information (assessment categories), and the rating scale (1-4). He reviews the numerical data that places him in the top of his learning cohort. We talk about what a big responsibility intelligence and the ability to learn is. How exciting it is to get to attend a good school, and how important it will be this summer to exercise our brains. We get to the bottom of the progress report where absences and tardies are listed. Parental assessment. 9 absences. 13 tardies. Ouch! [On the second to last day of school Turner was mad because he didn't get a certificate for never being tardy. I wondered, at that moment, how many tardies does Turner have? Five or six, maybe. I mean, usually, I rush him in the door and the attendance clerk looks to the ceiling and says, "Run," which doesn't count as a tardy.]

Nine absences includes several unauthorized field trips. There were three days in Mexico where we saw the amazing hundred arm starfish, ate the insides out of a whole fish, and watched marine life while snorkeling, not to mention all those Wii manual dexterity exercises. Two days of calling in sick, see "I must confess . . ." entry. One day to travel to the bluegrass state for holiday break. Two days to tour San Diego Zoo and the USS Midway with CiCi and D. One day for the desert museum with Nanny, PaPa, and Aunt Amy. Now the thirteen tardies, that's a different story. Mostly it involves me and/or Andy wanting just a little more sleep. Once it was a forgotten lunchbox.

On the second to last day of school Turner walked out with this huge envelope of goodies to read and admire. I include some of his favorites.

First, the writing journal.
A baby parrot looks like it[s] mom. Spelled as: A babee perit locs like it mom.

I like to go to the park. I like to go with my dad. Spelled as: I like to go to the porek. I like to go wif my dad.

I am thankful for my water turtle. My turtle is black. Spelled as: I am thankful for my watr trdl. My trdl is black.

A butterfly can flap. Spelled as is.

If I was a cowboy I would rest a cow. Spelled as: If I wus a cowboy I wod rest a cow.

They did not find the dog at home. They found it at [on the back] the park [spelled "the pork."].

I was fishing when the monster totmey on the shoulder [spelled "sholdr" on the back].

I want to be a marine biologist when I grow up Spelled as: "I want to be a mreeen biyolalist win I growe up."

A snowman, "Take me to Mount Lemmon."

A mother's day campus tour.

F A M I L Y

Turner and I went to campus to hang out for mother's day. There are museums, art installations, climbing sculptures, fountains, and plenty of other distractions, and parking is free on the weekends. It was a lovely day for a long stroll, imaginative play, and iced treats. Since there was a baseball game starting not long after we arrived on campus, parking was not as easy as expected. But, we prevailed and found a spot in a parking garage basement. It was half way between the Planetarium and the turtle pond, so it felt meant to be. We started on our adventure with a camera, several plastic zoo animals, a long sleeve shirt for Mom, a water bottle filled with ice, a notebook, a pencil, a stuffed deer, and zero snacks. Turner and I do not usually travel without snacks. . .
Our first official stop was at the fountain sculptures in the Women's Plaza of Honor, just outside the anthropology building. It is one of many quiet spots to rest on campus to be meditative and listen to wind in the trees and water moving. Turner and I tried to capture a picture of a hummingbird that was drinking from the water. It hung around for a long time, but it was moving about so quickly we never got it on camera. Turner finished our water bottle and asked again why I didn't bring even one little cheese stick.

Turner's new friend Hooves traveled with us. He also calls him Deery or, perhaps, Deerie. He wasn't particular about the spelling. It is a nickname, though I figure this out only after four hours of talking politely to a stuffed deer. You'll notice above that Hooves is stuffed safely in Turner's shirt, throughout the day, this became the special place "like a pouch on kangaroos so my sweet deery can share my heartbeat." We did just watch a movie about mammals, so he's really in tune with how different kinds of animals care for their young. In this picture, Turner is instructing Hooves on crossing-the-street protocol.

Showing off his silly band.

Another formative Turner/Hooves moment. Hooves, it seems, was ran over more than once by some "insensitive driver" who broke both of his back legs and then laughed at him. Turner was having an angry moment, telling Hooves how unfair life can be. "I know," he said after a long period of silence, "it just seems like it doesn't make sense. But sometimes you get to be the right one and sometimes you get to be the wrong one."

We walked and walked along Park Avenue thinking we'd encounter the turtle pond. After I asked two random people who knew nothing about the turtle pond, Turner caught up with a young woman who was rushing down the street and said, "My mom and I are looking for the turtle pond. I've been there before, but she hasn't. Have you heard of it? There is a big tree on its side."

The young woman pointed us in the correct direction. We pass Main Gate Square and the rose garden.

On one side of the gate you come into the university near the turtle pond and Old Main (the oldest building on campus; the previous administration building, of course). On the other side of the gate is University boulevard where there are tons of shops (urban outfitters, american apparel, thrift stores), fancy and not so fancy eateries, coffee shops, hair boutiques, and the Cereal boxx (they sell every kind of cereal you can imagine). After we cross the street, again, Turner remembers the way. He takes off running and leads us straight to the turtle pond.

There are more than a dozen differently sized "Finx" turtles in the pond. One that is not much bigger than our very own Finx the sheriff.

Dragon Fly. We also took pictures of a hummingbird drinking from a fountain (though it flew away before the photo snapped) and a lizard with blue on it (which was scared off by young girls before the photo snapped).

Turner standing on the sideways tree.

After our long journey to the turtle pond, we were ready to relax a bit. We took notes about how the pond was designed so that we could replicate this for Finx in a few years. He'll grow to be 12 inches AT LEAST, total news to us until about two weeks ago. Yes, responsible pet ownership means not going into a reptile store uninformed. We love Finx, which is good because he lives three or four decades with proper care. After we'd had enough relaxation and 90 degree temps, we walked to the Student Union and had Eeegee's and a bagel (that was so stale, but apparently okay for Turner and his one front tooth).

Sun Dial at the Planetarium

At the Planetarium we toured the mineral museum and saw tons of "crystals" and other elements from the periodic table. We played games. We anxiously awaited the 2:30 pm laser show.

Turner roughed me up in this game more than once. The logic behind winning is pretty simple, and yet felt difficult for me to execute against Turner, who always gets to go first.

More brainteasers.

The heat sensor camera was a huge hit. And when an old friend from preschool, Noah, showed up, the dance party was on. Moms, a grandma, a grandpa, and three little boys shaking it.

The Stars Wars trooper ship (pretty sure I'm getting that language incorrect) as it gets ready for take off. He is securing bolts and "double triple checking all this stuff."

Two funny stories (I carried a notebook with me to capture anything I could). First, we are on our way to the turtle pond. Turner is climbing the rock wall with a little assistance. Once he's up, I walk to the end of the block. He yells to me, "Mom. If we were at the beach and you were looking as beautiful as you are today I'd call you a beach angel." He laughs and laughs. This sounds super sweet, but just wait.

"What is a beach angel? That sounds familiar."

"Oh come on Mom. Don't you remember from the last Amazing Race? A beach angel?" He throws his hands into the air expressing a perplexed tone. I shake my head in confusion and he continues, "It was on a commercial. Remember the girl who built the huge sand castle and her brother turned a stick with a float-y on the end of it into a metal detector [I notice now, he has a stick in his hand as though it is a metal detector]. It looked like it shouldn't work, but it did. And the dad said to the mom, 'our boy is a genius.' And the mom agreed. Then the dad kissed her and said, 'You beach angel.'" [Sunday night as Andy, T, and I watch The Amazing Race, this very commercial comes on and Turner and I start laughing. It was just as he relayed it.]

On our way back from the turtle pond, and strangely, in the same spot as the previous story, Turner yells to me, "Mom you know what would make a great fertilizer for these trees?"

"What?"

He smiles. A student walks down the sidewalk past Turner, who is climbing on the rock fence. The student smiles at Turner, and then Turner smiles at me, "I must whisper it to you," he yells.

So I walk to where he is and he whispers, "Dried leaves and chicken poop." He giggles, "I mean, I didn't want to yell poop in that other guy's ear you know." After a moment we talked about earthworm farming that Mr. Anderson educated us on a few weeks ago. He has a friend in Asheville that is an earthworm farmer.

The laser show, which was the real purpose of going to campus today, was kind of a let down, but I loved our time there. It was pop music and a bunch of laser images dancing around; clip art representing song lyrics is what it felt like. And these song lyrics aren't particularly deep and meaningful. There was also fake fog so Turner was sneezing and my eyes were watering. We were trapped for forty minutes. There were periods of dancing in our seat, but less than halfway through the show Turner put his head in my lap. Twenty minutes in he was sitting in my lap with his head resting on my chest, which is a difficult thing to do given that my lap seems to be shrinking. His legs were heavy on my knees, his feet stretched all the way across the adjacent seat, his shoulders barely fit in the bend of my arm, and his head pushed up under my chin. It was like he'd grown an inch since we last sat this way. Therefore, I loved the laser show, if for no other reason than I got some quality cuddling with a semi-sleepy boy who is usually too busy to sit down and relax once in awhile.