End of Another School Year

The kids wrapped up another successful school year. They all had outstanding teachers who made learning fun (or at least not unpleasant) and each one enjoyed going to school. Oddly enough, for Kara, it was often the specials that dictated how happy she was to go in the morning. She didn't like PE, I think because she had to wear sneakers).

They did great grades wise. Jack almost made it the whole year with straight A's, but on his last report card, he brought home a single B. It was in writing and unfortunately, they didn't do a lot of writing in the last quarter, so a few low grades had a huge effect on the overall grade. Anna had one B on each of her report cards, and it bounced between subjects. Second grade has a weird grading system, but Kara met or exceeded all benchmarks. All three are outstanding readers who are well-above grade level. So, academic wise, we were very pleased.

Behavior wise, they also had a good year. Jack had one minor incident early in the school year, but his teacher was really great about keeping him out of trouble. He sometimes gets frustrated with classmates who are too loud or slow or whatever rubs him the wrong way. His second grade teacher allowed him to separate himself from the group when he felt himself getting annoyed and his third grade teacher continued the practice. She was also great with positive reinforcement. He came home many days clipped to the top of the behavior chart and always felt so proud.

Kara only clipped down on her behavior chart once all year and that was by a sub who apparently didn't understand usual classroom practices. Kara was devastated! She didn't even want to go to school the next day. We had to write her regular teacher a note explaining what happened and her teacher kindly reassured her that she still thought Kara was wonderful and would excuse the clip down. Anna clipped down a couple of times, generally for talking out of turn, but overall, she was also excellent. We really could not have asked for a better group of teachers. I pray that the trend continues!

Now, here is what this post is all about: the last day photos, complete with comparison shots! The girls found the clothes they wore on the first day, but Jack has no interest in that ridiculousness :)

We didn't tell them how to hold their hands, but Kara and Anna did similar poses naturally.