Monday, May 21, 2012

The 1st year comes to an end... FREAK OUT!

I feel like a bit of a poser (poseur?) saying this, but here goes: this is the last week of school for the 2011/2012 school year!  But...really?  Can it be?  I just don't feel like it was hard enough.  Usually by the end of the year I'm a dragging mess of exhaustion, just begging for freedom from the early mornings and the homework marathons.  And this year, when I expected to feel more exhausted and more of a mess, I feel strangely at peace.

Oh my gosh.  That means we didn't do enough!  We haven't done enough.  Clearly.  I should start panicking.  I should make them do summer school.  I should get out some flash cards or something, right?!?!?!?!

But then I had an idea.  We'll find all the things they've written or drawn or created and put it together in one folder, including poems, stories, plays & field trip journals.  We'll take photos of their ceramics projects and posters and put them in a digital file labeled with the school year.  We'll make reading logs so we can relive all the fun books they've read this whole year.  We'll go back through the pictures I've taken over the last 9 months and pull out the ones of science experiments and neat activities and field trips and add them to our record.

And right on top, we'll pop the results of our standardized testing (1 of 2 tests has already been scored and returned with very pleasing results), which we did voluntarily as Michigan has no annual testing requirement of homeschoolers.

Incidentally, we chose the CAT for this year, which is what I used way back in the olden days when I was elementary school aged.  Because I was already familiar with the format and content, I knew I'd feel comfortable administering it and I felt confident it wouldn't take up too much of our time or make them hate the idea of testing altogether.

Then, every time I start doubting what we've got going on here, I can take out the folder or open the file. I can marvel that they've done so much in seemingly such a short amount of time.  And I can say "Hey, maybe it's okay for a mom, every once in a while, to not feel like she was just trampled upon by a thousand angry bulls."

Do you have any last week of school traditions?  How do you usually feel when summer vacation starts?

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18 comments :

  1. Now you can relax and get ready for your new baby! Congratulations, Dweeja! You are an awesome mom. Have a great summer with your kids!

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  2. As you know, I don't homeschool. We have two rock solid traditions that we have had for the past 11 years of school. The day before the first day of school, we go to the beach. We frolic in the waves, we go on the boardwalk, we eat custard and we say goodbye to summer....The day of the last day of school, we go to Friendly's and I let the boys order whatever they want, which usually includes ridiculously enormous Fribbles.

    : )

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  3. If this is how you feel,8.5 months pregnant,in the last week of your very first year of homeschool, then you are doing everything right.

    Our last day of school tradition: pajama ride for ice cream, then read as late as you want (if it's nice enough, we pitch a tent in the back yard and sleep out there. Having said that,racoons don't read much, but will be happy to look for any crumbs and morsels that you bring out to the tent with you).

    congratulations on a job well done, Mama Dweej!

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    Replies
    1. Your last day sounds FAB! Okay. I need to come up with something good :)

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  4. Awwwww. I love this idea. Totally stealing it! We have 3.5 more weeks, though. Now you can nest with wild abandon. :)

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  5. Oh yes, the very second I realized baby would be here in June, we made a resolution to be finished by Memorial Day. I have baseboards to scrub, ya know?!?!?!? :)

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    1. because you never know when that newborn baby is going to decide to lick them. I have been there. Except I needed to paint the kitchen red instead.

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  6. Congrats on finishing everything before the baby!!! Our oldest just finished her second grade year and we celebrated by spending the whole weekend in the pool, eating every meal outside, taking naps and eating brownies. It was heaven for us all!!

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  7. Congratulations, Dwija! I hope you have a fantastic summer vacation with your sweet smart children.

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  8. Dwija, I just wrote today about how I'm feeling in the hangover of school's over. I understand, public teacher mind you, about the angry bulls. I thought I would vomit, multiple times, or be admitted into a hospital last Thursday when I was scheduled to turn in grades and check out. I'm still standing, but I would have much rather been calm, cool, and collected like yourself.

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  9. I love the last day of school! We are pretty much done, one kid still straggling along. BUT, I don't have any cool traditions. I have learned something new and must implement ASAP!

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  10. Go you!

    Now, just focus on nesting and growing that baby in the belly, then focus on the baby when she's here. xo

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  11. What a great idea! I think I'm just calling school for the year. We're 99.9% done with our books (but... do brick and mortars EVER finish their textbooks? I never did..), and I'm pretty much spent. I think I'm going to save that last 0.1% for the "Mooooommmmmm, I'm bored!" moments of summer. I don't predict much boredom. ;-)

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  12. "Hey, maybe it's okay for a mom, every once in a while, to not feel like she was just trampled upon by a thousand angry bulls."
    LOL LOL LOL!!! This is my favorite part! :-)
    Hooray for summer!

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  13. Yay for one year down!!! :) It's good you don't feel stressed... wasn't that the point of home schooling them! Happy days, right!?! :)

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  14. In the fall we open the year with a weekend at the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highlands Festival (wearing tartan, marching in the parade, manning the Rutherford Clan booth, eating haggis and funnel cakes), and at the end of the year we do any standardized tests required by the state, and let the kids have a camp-out in our big tent in the back yard as soon as the nights are warm enough. If it is not windy we might grill burgers for dinner. We still do school through the summer, but we generally do less academic and more outdoorsy stuff, like gardening and picnicking.

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