We Survived School

Three cheers for Teacher Daddy!!! Mike - and the kids - have survived the Spring 2020 Homeschool Adventure. I cannot say that no feelings were hurt in the process - but everyone seems mostly unscathed. The girls were even surprisingly sad that the year was over, although we think it is more that they wanted so badly to go back to school and be with their friends and teachers again.

The official last day of school was Wednesday, so Tuesday night was a "reverse parade" at their school - where the families drive through and wave at the teachers/staff on the sidewalk. Except that huge thunderstorms rolled through Tuesday night and the parade was canceled. The kids were really disappointed. The teachers were too - and inundated the principal until he rescheduled it for Thursday night. God bless those teachers and their dedication to providing some closure for their students (and themselves)!

School year artwork

Dec's teacher stopped by each of her students' homes on Wednesday to say good-bye in person and drop off a little summer gift. Q's teacher hosted a "parade" at his house on Wednesday afternoon where the kids could come by and say good-bye (and get a cookie). F's teacher doesn't live in town, so he hosted an online class meeting to say good-bye. We were so glad the parade was rescheduled for her - so she could say good-bye in person. It was clear she needed that!

Mike is not back to work yet, so instead of another summer with Nanny N, the kids will continue hanging with Dad. Unfortunately, since we've been home for twelve weeks, we are already at August-level entertainment tricks. By August, we might just be handing out ice cream and $20s to survive.

We'll close out the homeschool season with a few favorite memories:

** When distance learning started, Dec was assigned a giant stack of sight word flashcards. The first time we did them, he had probably 1/3 that he didn't know at all and several others that he struggled with. He worked really hard and by the end of the year, he could do all 100 flashcards in under 5 minutes!

** Around the mid-point of distance learning, Quinn and I had a discussion about how "I'm done with it" and "I don't understand it so I didn't do it" are fundamentally different things. Based of that conversation, she came to me to ask for help with vertices. And I had to ask her to show me Mr. P's instructional video. Mike laughed and took over. However, I really nailed it when she needed help with her persuasive paper writing assignment.

** Q's teacher made a sign for the reverse parade that said "Honk to Vote for Mr. P's class as Tug of War Champs." He and Quinn were made for each other - and I'm so sad she didn't get Track and Field Day with him. However, both she and F remain reigning Tug of War champs from last year!

** Fiona's teacher sent the sweetest note at the end of the year - "Fiona is one of the sweetest and smartest girls I have ever had in the classroom. This group of kids will always be so special for me, and Fiona was a huge part of that with her contagious smile."