END OF SCHOOL!

I think I am almost as excited as the kids to for the last day of school! I was involved in a lot of the end of year parties, activities, and of course, teacher gifts (which means scrapbooks in my case). It has been a little crazy!

We are glad about our decision to send them to public school. Although I think the most ideal situation would be a true mix of both homeschool and 'public' school, I feel like this is the best for us right now. I do miss teaching them and we will be continuing our own form of school over the summer somewhere between tennis, soccer, basketball, swimming, piano, golfing and gymnastics camps/lessons.

When I asked Parker if he was happy or sad about the end of school. He said both-happy because it was summer break and sad because he was going to have to do 'summer school' (aka school work at home with mom during the summer). Yet, interestingly enough, it is Parker who has taken the initiative to start his summer workbooks and is determined to get them both completed within a week so that he can move on to 5th grade math and language arts. He is 1/3 done with them both already! Maddie has followed his example and is burning through hers also. Cambren and Tanner aren't far behind them. I guess I'll have to capitalize on their enthusiam and see what else I can sneak in there!

All of them did great on their report cards-all As! We are really proud of them! Even though Tanner had some adjusting to do at first when he switched mid-year to 5th grade math-he had to take the last year's 4th grade TAKS in order to be allowed to do it-(I think it was more of an organizational and logistics problem-since it disrupted his day and kind of took a while to get into a routine between 4th and 5th grade classes.), he ended up with great results (And then the poor kid had to take the 4th grade TAKS test again at the end of the year!). Parker didn't seem to miss a beat skipping up to 3rd grade and has fit right in at the top of his 3rd grade class. (He finshed the year by passing off his "17s" in his multiplication facts-and I'm sure he would have continued had the year been longer.) Maddie's reading and writing has been phenomenal, her reading level was literally off the charts. Her teacher said she was only able to test them to a certain level and Madelyn was way past that! Cambren has also done great with his 'school' this year. He is really progressing with his reading, writing, and we are even starting with a little math! What he really loves though is science and geography. I have a hunch that those will be particularly favorite subjects for him in the future. He continues to plan our future trip to the Amazon rain forest.

All in all, it has been a fabulous year and we are welcoming the more relaxed atmosphere that is summer!