Last day of school!!!

Today was the last day of school, which is also in many ways the best day of school. The kids visited their next year's class. Dominique will be in a class with none of her best friends, but she was still smiling. I later found out her teacher planned that on purpose. Dominique is VERY close to her best friend Sierra and to her cousin Kellen and the teacher thought it would be good to make sure that she also develops relationships with some other kids. She was already chumming up with another girl who will be in her class. Growing up, my classes were always just one class- so you were just with everyone and there wasn't this drama and also the possibility of making more equal/better relating classes.

Ivan's class is small. His first year they had 2 classes, but then went to one 2nd grade and a second and first split class. Next year they are doing some of both. He will be with the entire grade 3 class for half the day and the group will be split for the other half of the day. He will have 3 teachers.

They both did so well and we are thankful that for the most part, they enjoy school.

But today was not about the work, it was about celebrating. The Wood tick festival is when the teachers all have a booth they run- from jumpy castles, to edible crafts, to face paint (with professional face painters hired), hair designs, books, fire truck tours, new boat rescue tour, numerous crafts and games...

There are burgers for sale, but we packed a lunch and Brian got to join us.  Usually the festival is held out doors, but we've had crazy weather with tornadoes threatening and it was still very windy today, so they moved us down the road to the Rexentre/ skating rink.

If it's hot, they spray water from the trucks so the kids can cool off and go in the water, but not this year! I was getting knocked off my feet just standing beside it!

Last night there were power outages and crazy winds.  The sky turned black and Brian and I ran out in the rain to move the van into the garage and take everything not attached out of the yard and into the garage.  Storm chasers had come up from the States to see what would churn up.  Today was still crazy windy.  I'm hoping it will be calm tomorrow while I drive into the city.

After lunch, the kids got to enjoy a concert in the gym.  Emora discovered that she and her cousin matched!

We hope the kid's teacher's have a great summer!  They were truly wonderful at understanding our kids and meeting them where they were at.  Ivan has a hard time being focused at school and Miss Howden used many, many strategies to try to help him get his work done.

When Dominique went through a short time of not liking school, Miss MacPherson took it very seriously and created a personalized plan for her that she loved.

What is your best memory from grade school?