End of the Year

Another school year has come and (almost) gone.

Lexi has had an amazing year. She made it into the gifted program and the girl just sails right on through it. She is in the first grade and she knows how to make a PowerPoint presentation! John was very impressed (as was I). She had an honors assembly today and the girl made out like a bandit. I could not believe the things she got. It made me feel bad for Jacob... he didn't even get a pat on the back.

Anyways, she received about 5 awards. One of which was a trophy for being the highest scorer on the state tests for all of first grade. That's right! My little genius only missed TWO, count them, TWO questions on the CRCT. She must get her brains from her daddy... she got some of his looks too but most of them came from her gorgeous mama! She also received a certificate for making high honor roll in the 4th quarter, for being a good citizen and for winning her class's spelling bee today. The girl can spell better than some adults I know LoL Lexi also got a ribbon for having the highest accelerated reader points in the entire first grade. She loves to read too. She probably reads close to a 4th grade level.

I remember when she got mad at me for buying her a level 3 book at the bookstore one day because it was "too hard." She had that thing mastered within two days and now its one of her favorite books. Pretty soon she will be starting on the Harry Potter books John sent home from Iraq. Well, she might not quite be there yet... but it won't be long, I'm sure.

Jacob has come a long way this school year. He has learned how to tie his shoes and does very well in school. He does get fidgety every once in awhile but nothing that distracts him or others from getting their work done. I think I can be too hard on him at times... he has some big shoes to fill following in Lexi's footsteps. That will probably make it hard on him at school as well if he were to get a teacher that Lexi had. I hate for him to always be compared to her... she is in a class all her own when it comes to learning. Jacob knows the stuff, he just doesn't care to. I'm hoping he will start to settle down as he gets into a more structured working environment in school and his learning will soar to new heights.

The end of the year is also a time for giving thanks to those teachers that guided your child through the year. A teacher can have too many coffee mugs and popsicle stick framed pictures but they are still great ideas for gifts... unless you want to be more original and creative... which is what we do.

Last year we made homemade jam for the teachers. This year we made edible bouquets out of fruit. Not only are they great gifts that the teachers are almost guaranteed to love they are also good for the environment. Being consumable we don't have to worry about the teachers tossing the "junk" we gave them as a gift. I also feel like if I don't want people buying my kids stuff that will clutter the house why would I think that a teacher would want something that will do the same. You can only save so many items from past students before you need a storage unit to house all of it.

Our gifts have always been a hit and rather easy to throw together too. Here is a picture of two of the fruit bouquets we made.