Happy Friday! Today is officially my boys’ last day of school, although we basically called it as of like, Tuesday. 😊 They really didn’t have any real “work” this week- just some fun, optional virtual activities and things like that.
I mostly gave them a free pass the rest of the week to just do whatever they wanted, which was mostly alternating playing outside and coming back in panting, saying “It’s so hot!!”, guzzling water and then going back out again after a while.
I might try to take some time this weekend to think about what we want our summer learning activities to look like. I have a bunch of old workbooks and things that they could theoretically do some pages from, plus some of their school workbooks haven’t even been fully completed and have some good stuff in them.
We want to work more on their Spanish this summer, too- they’ve been doing the Duo Lingo Spanish app and I have a stack of old elementary level Spanish phonics/ vocab workbooks that my mom (a retired teacher from a bilingual school) brought that are a good level for them.
I’m assuming they’ll still have access to the online programs they were using for virtual schooling (they seemed to like the Freckle program they used for math). Last summer I had them do the quizzes and activities on beestar.org. The math programs are free (divided up by grade level) but they also have other subjects too for a fee. I liked this a lot as the quizzes are only I think maybe 10 problems so it doesn’t take too long but they were challenging enough to feel worthwhile.
Anyway, it’s hard to believe another school year is over and I guess I officially have a 5th and 6th grader now! Waahh…. That sounds so big and kind of makes me want to cry! Technically it’s middle school next year for Ethan, though their school is K-8, so it’s not as big of a change (which I’m okay with!).
I want to try to convince them to put on “real” clothes or at least some of their nicer athletic wear (haha) and take an “end of the year” photo on the front steps or something. There is going to be an end of year parade at their school this afternoon, so I think we’ll drive over and take part in that and wave at everyone. 😊
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| Their first day of school pic from September 2019. Little did we all know what this school year would bring….. |
I really do feel sad that kids everywhere had to miss such a big chunk of one of their school years this year. I’m sure they don’t realize it now, but these school years just go by so fast. I remember 4thgrade as being one of my favorite years in school- I had one of my favorite young teachers, and it was the year I really clicked with my two best friends (who I then remained BFFs with all through high school!).
I’m praying that things can somehow go back to normal next school year. This has all been bad enough, and it would be just heartbreaking to have it continue on for another year or something.
Usually on the last day of school I traditionally take a half day off and we go out to lunch and then mini golfing or something special. I feel like this year, no one really cares and we have zero plans. Sad but true. I’m just planning to work most of the day but I am going to go hit some tennis balls with Ethan this morning for a little bit. Maybe we’ll go get ice cream after the school parade or something.
Do you usually do anything special for the last day of school? Any plans for this year?
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that I pushed myself REALLY HARD and just finished the last real workout of the 6 week “The Work” program on Beachbody! Today’s workout was called “The Crucible” so I’ll let you imagine how fun that was…haha. I’m grateful that I was able to dig deep and completed every single rep. It was a 100 rep workout- 8 moves, 100 reps each. It was SO tough. But I am proud of myself for completing every single workout in this 6 week program and I’m grateful for being able to get in such good workouts at home. I’m grateful to myself for keeping the commitment I set because now it feels so good!
GRATEFUL KAE 
same here, last day felt like just another day. fortunately my girls are little, grade 1 and preschool so I'm not very worried about academic year, i worry more about their emotional part, their friendship, especially my older one, she thrives and needs friends. So instead i've bought a lot of books for her which she absolutes love, and just got some puzzles to work together.
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Yes, it is so hard to not have the kids with their friends. I feel like without seeing each other constantly they just don't have the day to day interactions at lunch, recess, etc. to develop some of those relationships in the same way that they would normally.
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I hope schools can safely resume in the fall, too. It's so tough to replicate what they experience in school in an at-home environment. I also know there are kids who are not in a good situation at home that benefit from being away from their homes during the school day. 😦 I don't think any of my friends did much to mark the end of the school year either. I think there was just a great sense of relief that it's done…. but then they have to figure out how to keep their kids entertained all summer without play dates and sports and such… So even though it's tough to have a toddler at times, I am glad he's at daycare having a blast and I don't to worry about filling his days!
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