the end of (school) days

 we're done with 2nd and 3rd grade. school let out on thursday after several absolutely grueling days of movie watching and the cleaning out of desks. why they even went to school the last week is because i needed to get as much done as possible before i have to start taking 4 kids with me to the grocery store. otherwise they could have stayed home that week and cleaned their rooms and done chores for as much as they were doing at school.

scarlett had a great year. she absolutely loved school and she had cried several times over missing her teacher, all while still seeing her every day. according to scarlett, one of her biggest accomplishments is crossing the monkey bars. i think her biggest accomplishment was learning to go out of her way to be a friend. she struggled for the first few months with her shyness and only spent time with reagan on the playground. when reagan transferred to another school, i had to coach her every day on what to do to approach people to make friends. it was really hard for her to be in a completely new environment with nothing familiar, but we practiced multiple conversation scenarios and she kept at it and became completely comfortable with talking to new children. being a friend is such an important skill. few things aggravate me more than a person who has a terrible social experience because they depend on others to talk to them. 

scarlett also learned to make her own breakfast, completely unaided. except for the cleaning up part. but i think kids who clean up after themselves is an urban legend. 

reagan also had a great year and after he transferred to his new school program, he really did well in school. we are still working to decipher his alternative learning methods, but we're making a lot of progress. homework was often a marathon of pain, but after the wailing and gnashing of teeth, he could accomplish the task in about 20 minutes. sounds like some adults i know.  when i asked him about his favorite thing from this year, his answer is always, i hope there are girls in my class next year. ladies man, indeed. 

 things i won't miss: driving an hour each morning and each afternoon in order to do the car line at two schools in two different towns. 

i also won't miss being stuck in car line and driving home behind this dipstick:

all us carline moms are WAY impressed at him revving his engine when he was behind us and then driving at breakneck speed to each stop sign on the way home. so cool. so. cool. i feel bad for his kid.

both my kids are going to miss seeing this bicycle memorial on the side of the road somewhere in between reagan and scarlett's schools. a bicyclist was killed on that stretch of road and my kids were morbidly fascinated by it. a close 2nd place of interesting was seeing a house with goats and miniature ponies in the yard and thirdly was when i caught the green light at the top of a hill and i was get enough speed to gas my engine and catch air, leaving behind our stomachs and all safety precautions. simple pleasures. next year's drop off with take less than 10 minutes so i'm not sure what i will do to entertain them. 

school school. what will we do without you? probably a whole lot of nothing.