Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
With 14 grandchildren, Delane Pennington was struggling with ways to find creative and thoughtful birthday gifts each year. So she created one herself. Relying on her background in teaching, and knowing the time constraints placed on mothers, she created the first in what she hopes to be a series of books to chronicle a child's journey through the school system.
"Now I am in Kindergarten" is a hardback part-storybook, part-scrapbook that allows parent and child to guard the first memories of school together.
"It just inspired me," Pennington said. "I really believe teaching children to value who they are and what they do builds the foundation for success."
Pennington taught 20 years at Dayton Elementary School before becoming the director of special services at Silver State Charter High School.
She said she often created a similar paperback book for her first-grade students to remember their experiences.
"But a paperback book can get lost in the shuffle," she said. "They just don't value it like a hardback."
The book has a slot on the cover for a picture of the student, then designates space for "my first drawing," and samples of the student's handwriting throughout the year, and several other questions to fill out to track the child's progress and preserve memories.
"You can be as creative as you want," Pennington explained. "I love to do creative things, but at the same time, I like some kind of format. This is not too overwhelming, it has all the important parts."
There's a pocket in the back to store additional items.
"You get so much stuff at school, having a place to put it makes it so much easier," she said.
One of her grandsons, Adan Picazo, just finished kindergarten. On a recent day when she had four of her grandchildren over at her Washoe Valley home for the day, they looked through his book.
"That's your field trip, Adan," his brother Ivan reminded him as they looked through the pictures.
About his future, Adan filled in, When I grow up, I want to "draw, do homework, eat breakfast, do soccer ball."
He said he plans to eat cereal every day, but different kinds.
For the question of who he'll marry when he grows up, it says, "I don't want to do that one."
Pennington has two more grandchildren who will be going into kindergarten this year, and plans to add onto the series with a book for each grade level.
"Wonderful memories keep the color in life," she said.
She has several book signings planned in the area.