Commencement Ceremonies

My kids crack me up sometimes. They are so creative and funny that it kind of takes me by surprise. It's one of my favorite things. Hearing them crack up, cracking up together, or having them make me crack up...truly one of life's simple joys.

One of my goals for this past summer was to keep "school stuff" fresh in their minds. I didn't want to let their little brains turn into mush, or fall victim to endless days of Spongebob and Hannah Montana. So I instituted "summer school". Each day after breakfast and chores I would have them do about an hour or so of school stuff. They had brought home Math and English workbooks that weren't even half filled up, so we started there. On Mondays and Wednesdays, they'd do primarily Math with a little bit of free reading at the end. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they'd do spelling, writing exercises, and more free reading (often with a trip to the Library on Tuesdays). Friday's we took off and did something "fun"...a field trip or an outing of some sort.

For the most part our summer school went pretty smoothly. At first they really enjoyed it and it seemed to be kind of fun for them to play school at home. Then the novelty wore off, and there was much whining, complaining, and bargaining taking place. Even after I was put on bedrest I persisted because I felt like it was a battle worth fighting for, and something that would ultimately benefit them in the end. Plus it gave us at least an hour of time together before they took off to the backyard, basement, or their bedroom...whilst I languished on the couch and didn't really seem them for the rest of the day. One of my favorite parts was when Avery would lay next to me on the couch to do her free reading and read to Baby girl in my belly. Those kind of moments made the not so pleasant moments worth it.

Well, our summer school is drawing to a close. I told them that they could have the last week before real school actually starts off. I told them this the last week of July, and they don't start school until August 20th. They were so overjoyed that they kind of jumped the gun on congratulating themselves for a job well done (we still have another week left). After school one morning last week, they disappeared into their bedroom and the next thing I knew I was being summoned for a "graduation program" to be held in their bedroom asap. Seeing the fruits of their creative little juices kind of took me off guard. The whole thing (albeit random) was actually really cute and cracked me up. From the makeshift podium down to the costumes, I was laughing the whole time.

So without any further adieu...(they even had Pomp and Circumstance playing on their CD player when I walked in...where they found it, I have no clue.)