Many nights when I’m tucking Cake into bed, she asks me to tell her a story either a made up one or one from she was a baby, or a story from my childhood.
I try to vary up the stories I tell her, but last night I started to tell her about when I was in grade three.
I attended Stittsville Public School, and my teacher was Mrs. Posmituk. I remember that she was very short, and had short brown hair. She was a lively teacher and I liked her a lot. Being a pretty shy and quiet kid, I think she recognized that I didn’t have any friends so it was her desk rearrangement that sat me beside my first best friend, Laurie. I used to sit in the back, on the left, and Mrs. Posmituk moved me into the middle and right beside Laurie, and we became friends. I had my first pool party, and sleepover at Laurie’s house, and she also was the first friend to hurt my feelings when she didn’t want to perform in the end of year talent show with me. Mrs. Posmituk read Charlotte’s Web to us outloud, I loved listening to her animated voice read to us all the characters and their emotional ups and downs. Charlotte’s Web was the first big book that Cake read when she was 4, I now have wonderful memories about that book both as a kid and an adult.
I remember also taking the EQAO testing while in grade 3. I remember getting bored half way through the test and just guessing at a bunch of answers so that I could finish faster. Luckily for me my laziness didn’t have me end up in the delayed class…not a smart decision on my part, haha! Happily now they break up the testing into several days for kids, so at least I don’t need to worry about Nay doing the same thing next year.
I also remember lots of tidbits from grade 3, it’s really the first year of school where I have a multitude of memories. I remember the boy, Kyle, who dyed some blonde into his hair to look like Vanilla Ice. I remember the building project and since a boy had brought in two boards from home, he was the one who got to choose the teams and he only chose the boys in the class. I think his name was Jason…though I can’t picture his face. I remember there was a boy in class who failed, and had to do grade 3 over again, I remember seeing him cry.
I remember we did a project about trees, and I really enjoyed doing that. I can still feel the sun on my face while I looked up into the branches to see what shapes the leaves were in to classify them. I liked all the different bark types and the rubbings and tracings we did. I am sure we probably only worked on that project for a couple of days, so it’s funny how nearly thirty years later I can still remember enjoying it so much.
As my kids, one is finishing grade three and the other starting there in the fall, and I wonder what of their year will stick with them the most. Will Cake have fond memories of her Emily Stowe wax museum, or her own EQAO testing? What will Nay get to do next year, and will he have memories from grade 2?
Mong Mong Monsters 