The End of School 2015-2016

As the school year came to an end, it was fun to look back on all of the things that the boys accomplished this year. They are excellent students, and I am so proud of all the work they do. Here is the yearly picture comparison of beginning of school and end of school. I love seeing the difference in their anxious timid smiles at the beginning versus their confident, happy ones at the end. These boys are growing up too fast!

Start of 1st Grade/End of 1st Grade

Andrew finished his first year in the Portuguese immersion program. I am shocked at how much they learned and how much he can understand and say in Portuguese. He spent half the day learning math in Portuguese and the other half learning Reading/Writing in English. His teachers were both excellent, and every time I went to Parent-Teacher conferences, they had nothing but rave reviews about Andrew. Ms. Barnes said, "I wish I could have an entire class full of Andrews!" It made my mommy heart happy to know that he is such a good boy. It was especially nice to know that even if we were having issues at home, he was still respectful and obedient at school.

At the end of the school year, they had a special program to showcase what they learned in Portuguese. Andrew performed in a dance number called "Sao Joao." He was terrific and knew all the steps. He also sang all of the other songs with his class. He was particularly handsome in his cowboy outfit. I was so impressed with the program and all that they learned.

At home, Andrew is able to talk with Jonathon in Portuguese and understands a lot of what he says. His vocabulary is still small, but he is learning so much. He feels special knowing something that the rest of us don't. Now it's on to 2nd grade!

Start of 4th Grade/End of 4th Grade

Christian had another awesome year! He finished 4th grade in the CAS (Center for Advanced Studies) program. Besides being an advanced program, his school was also a STEM school, so they focused a lot on science, engineering, etc. Christian loves all of that stuff, and frequently came home telling us about cool experiments they did. He rode a bus all the way across town every day, but never once complained. He had a fantastic, seasoned teacher who was perfect for pushing the students. They went through all of 4th grade math and half of 5th grade math in one year. He always says that he isn't very good at math, but he mastered everything they learned.

His teacher also worked a lot on language arts, grammar in particular. Christian struggled with this at the beginning. He would come home feeling discouraged because if he missed one little piece of the sentence, he would get the whole thing wrong. On Thursday night, I would help him study for his test on Friday. We would go over and over those sentences to make sure that he remembered all of the corrections that he needed to make. He wasn't really used to struggling with school before, but with a lot of work he was able to conquer those annoying DLR's (Daily Language Reviews). On his last report card, he got all A's. I was super proud of his efforts.

This year also marked such a huge improvement in his level of responsibility. He was excellent at doing his homework without being asked. He took care of everything on his own with very little reminding. In previous years, it required a lot more direct supervision from me, but he is growing up and becoming very self-motivated.

During the last week of school, they did a lot of fun things. One of which was an egg drop. They had to design something that would allow them to drop an egg off of the roof of the building without breaking, then take the egg out of the contraption, run to the trash can and crack it. The winner was the one who could do it in the least amount of time. We didn't receive the information until just a few days before the event. Jonathon was gone to Wood Badge that week, so he didn't have any time to work with Christian on it. Christian and I researched some ideas and settled on one that he liked, but didn't have a chance to build it. The project was due on Monday, and Jonathon got home late Saturday night. We talked with Christian about not doing homework on Sunday, and everyone agreed that it would be best to wake up early Monday morning to do the project. It was cutting it close, but we felt it was important for him to know the importance of the Sabbath. On Monday morning, Christian and Jonathon were up early working on it. Their design using straws wasn't working quite right, and they kept having to add straws to stabilize one side or the other. It kept breaking in various places when they tried it out, and they would have to modify it. Finally, they were out of time. They fixed it all the best they could, and I took him to school. After we dropped him off, Jonathon said that he was pretty sure the egg was going to break, but it would depend on which way it landed. When Christian got home that afternoon, he showed us his 3rd place ribbon and we were shocked. He got third place in the whole CAS program (approx. 100 students), and his egg never cracked. Yay Christian! Bring on Summer!