The Home Stretch.
Can you feel it? School is almost over. We are so close that our brains have already tuned themselves to the 'Summer Vacation Channel' and all learning as we know it ceases to exist. Sadly, the teachers are still attempting to teach our little darlings, but they are probably spending twice the time trying to get them to settle down and pay attention than they usually have all year.
Which is why this is the perfect time to get them to showcase their abilities at their school's Open House, right?
Maybe...have some big awards ceremonies to celebrate their accomplishments.
Or, perhaps this would be a good time to test them on how much of this Common Core math stuff they actually understand!
(Actually, go ahead and test them...and let the chips fall where they may!)
At this point in the school year, anything at all just becomes 'One More Thing.' That one tiny extra thing feels like too much. It's the costume we have to throw together to make our sixth graders dress like Disco Duck. It's the flyer about the thing we need to have at the place on the same day of that other thing that we didn't want to go to either. Basically, it's the straw that will break this camel's back. If you invite me to any sort of social gathering during the last month of school, there is a good chance that I will not be there. Because anything social is automatically considered optional at this stage of the game. I choose to do as few optional things as I can possibly get away with because of all the things I have to do just to survive. Surviving spring allergies and softball practice and class parties and team parties and final field trips and remembering to check backpacks for notes that keep us abreast of all the things that all the people need from us so we aren't running to CVS at 11 p.m. on a Sunday for poster board...that will pretty much take everything we've got. Plus, there is always something they forget to tell us or a flyer we missed and we will need to take time away from something else in order to put out that unexpected fire. Scheduling every second of the day with something productive will only backfire on you at this point. Just put one foot in front of the other and quietly plan to run away. You probably won't have to...the end is near! I promise.
This blog here sums it up perfectly, methinks. That woman speaks the truth.
End of school hard.
PREACH!!!
As your children are arguing with you about the school's dress code or those pesky homework assignments or those reading goals that now seem so far out of reach, gently remind them that their days of sleeping until 10 a.m. and FaceTiming their friends in the comfort of their pajamas and watching SpongeBob until their little brains actually implode are so close they should be able to taste them. It's not necessary to mention the summer homework you have planned or the ways you intend to keep their immature frontal lobes from going into complete hibernation over the too short, yet too long summer break. Any additional resistance should be avoided at all cost.
When you find yourself surviving on just caffeine, adrenaline, and fear of failure, just know that it will be enough. We'll all be singing along with Alice before we know it...
