Last Day of School

Hard to believe, but another school year is over.  Silas finished up last Friday, Mason took his last exam yesterday and Ella's last day was today.  What a great year they all had!!  

One early morning event that we went to in Ella's class was a book signing.  Each kid chose a topic, researched, drew pictures and wrote the text and then it was bound into a book.  The parents then got to visit the classroom, see all the books and the "author" signed the book for us.

This is some art that Silas did in school, then the PTO had a company take the art and do magnets, mugs, t-shirts, etc.  It was cool.  Those they had to shrink the art (thus the hand print) for the magnets and Silas could not understand why his hand was so small!

Unlike Mason and Silas, Ella actually gets to celebrate her birthday during school. We took snacks and the class sang Happy Birthday.

They sang the "cha, cha, cha" version.  Mrs. C was fabulous this year.  Ella absolutely loved her and today as she was leaving the room, gave her a huge big hug. Mrs. C asked Ella to email her over the summer.  Hope she knows what she is in for!

Silas' field day at school was postponed twice, so it ended up being on the last day of school. I volunteered and was stationed at the "cow milking" area.  They must have known I was a home-grown Hilliard gal.  The kids loved it, though Si doesn't much look like he's enjoying it.

I love this picture - Si's favorite activity was the wet ball throwing.  When his teacher, Mrs. P, was out on maternity leave, Mrs. H (here in orange) was the sub for 8 weeks.  She came back to visit the class on field day and Silas welcomed her back by nailing her with a soaker ball. Look closely in the upper right corner of the picture and you can see the ball that bounced off of her.

Today was the "clap out" at the elementary for the 5th graders.  We have a few friends whose kids are moving on up to the 6th grade building. It's SO emotional and I was glad today that my kids are all going to be in the same buildings next year.  I'll still have a high schooler, an elementary student and a preschooler.  They just all move up a notch.  I'm happy for some even keeledness (not really a word, I'm betting) - it's been a rough week/month/2010.  I'm looking forward to not necessarily a stress-free summer, but definitely spending a lot of time with the kids, family and friends.
And I've got my list of Fun Stuff to do!

Parent letter for a teacher

Mason's English teacher gave the parents an assignment - write her a letter about our kid...this was ours.

Mason J. parent letter…

Mason, Mason, Mason…hmm…he is the oldest of 3 children. He has a sister that is 6 years old and in 1^st grade at (DC) and a brother that is 3 years old and in preschool at (AD). We thought for a long time that he’d be an only child but we’re glad that he’s not because he’s a great big brother (though he appears to really love to annoy his younger siblings).

Mason is a kid with a good sense of humor and a good heart. Sometimes he will go overboard with the humor (at least at home!) but will go out of his way to help, to play with the neighbor kids, to tend to animals (ours and others) and he loves our dog, Zoe and kitten, Cleo.

We learned around 2^nd grade that Mason appears to be an auditory learner. He’d learn how to do his spelling words when we’d practice with him in the tub and ask him to spell it out verbally versus having him sit and write it out (which he hated and didn’t seem to learn as much from). He is a great reader and likes to read fiction books (though he will deny that he likes to “read” because he doesn’t think it is “cool”). He’s read all the Harry Potter books, the Twilight series and some Stephen King too. He tends to excel at science. English, on the other hand, is not his best subject - especially writing. He does have a creative mind and when he does write – creates some very interesting stories.

Mason is a POKEY child! When he was making the transition from his 2^nd year of preschool to Kindergarten, his teacher’s only concern was that he is “a pokey child”. He’s unorganized a great deal of the time (as are his parents…), but he is very bright and has done very well in school so far without much effort.

We want to encourage him to understand that high school is different, it takes effort…lots. We want to see that he is putting forth the effort and we want to encourage him to be involved in many different activities to discover his interests in life. Our goal this year is to help him do better with his organizational skills, and encourage him to put more effort into school and to commit to exploring different activities.

One last thing – as a kid, Mason LOVED Batman…to the point that he wouldn’t go out of the house without his mask and cape…

Her response: I LOVE the picture!!! It made my heart just melt.
(mine too...)