A couple of Fridays ago was Ricky’s kindergarten program. They call it the “Kindy 500.” Each child gets to create a cardboard vehicle, they sing us a few patriotic songs, and then they drive around and visit different national monuments. Ricky loved it! My hormonal self teared up.
The first task was his vehicle. I am a firm believer in letting the child do their own work. He wanted a car. He wanted it to have flames and the pictures he drew of dragons on it. Ricky wasn’t worried about size or design, so neither was I. Kevin found a box big enough for Ricky to stand in but small enough for him to easily maneuver and spray painted it a dark brown (Ricky wanted black, but we already had the brown paint and he really wasn’t picky). I drew some flame outlines on it and Ricky went to work. He did ask me to write “Ricky’s Dragon Fire Car” on the back though.
Billy had to create a car as well. He wanted a blue and green car.
To make the drawings of dragons stand out more, we attached a flag to the back of his car. A couple of “seat belts” and he was ready to go!
Luckily there was room for two …
The morning of the Kindy 500, all the kindergarteners went to the morning schedule. School starts at 8:35. Ricky was dressed, with his shoes tied, by 7:40. Billy was very excited that he got to go with us to school that morning!
We took Ricky to “park” his car in the gym and were amazed at some of these vehicle creations. Some of them were big enough to rival our Dodge Neon! A few had working wheels, some had headlights that actually lit up, and many of them made Ricky’s look very small. But Ricky was proud of his dragon fire car and we focused on that!
The classes all came in and sang us three songs: “America,” “You’re A Grand Ole Flag,” and “I Pledge Allegiance.” Ricky sang his little heart out … as well as head bopping, knee bouncing, and the occasional winks to the audience!
Then the kids put on their cars and paraded through the hall for us. They came so fast that we nearly missed Ricky! You’d think it was the real Indy 500 based on how fast these kids were moving!
Billy had his car ready to wave at Ricky as he went by.
Here is a minute long video of the excitement. Our favorite part is Ricky winking at us during his third song.