Merry May-cember

Have you heard the term May-cember? It's used because May is reminiscent of the stress that we give ourselves around the holidays, what with end of school projects and parties, field trips, teacher appreciation week, Mother's Day, standardized tests, extra-curriculars (swim winding up, soccer and gymnastics winding down) and other end of year recitals, programs, and awards. This year actually wasn't too hectic for us, so Hadley decided to ramp it up with a visit from the Tooth Fairy! We think this tooth was wiggling for about two months, so we were glad to see it finally come out.

Then the kids kicked off the last week of school with a practice swim meet. It started at 6pm and went on into the dark hours of the night. At least Hadley was done and in bed close to her regular time, but Owen had to stay way past bedtime for breaststroke and butterfly heats. They have done so well, considering that neither had ever swam 25m continuously or considered timing or racing before, and Owen even picked up two new strokes this year! They are amazing and dedicated to go to practice and improve daily.

They did well for their first swim meet ever, but they left a lot of room for improvement through the rest of the season. For example, Owen started doing freestyle during his breaststroke race; there is so much to remember! Owen is eager to practice his diving and improve his breaststroke form - he asks to go to the pool every day after practice. Hadley is working on side breathing and keeping straight during the backstroke - she has snuck into a couple of 7/8 classes, even though she's technically still 6 and under. Both have found motivation and real meets start soon!

Granna and Grandad got to witness the practice meet in person! They also stayed the night so that they could attend the kids' Celebration of Learning the next day. We were so glad that they could join us!

Hadley was honored with the Super Reader award because she was always asking to read when she finished her classwork. She loved her class and teacher and thrived at school with nearly perfect marks.

Owen's classmates voted for him to receive the Thomas Edison award. He wasn't sure what that meant, and he was disappointed because he really wanted the Future Scientist award. With daily science instruction (lacking in Idaho), he has discovered that he loves science! What a wonderful thing to discover! He rose to the challenge of longer school days and also finished with straight As.

Here's the last day of school picture. The kids loved riding their bikes independently every day to and from school and made sure to leave the house by 7:30am, so that they would be the first ones in the classroom twenty minutes before the official start of school. It was definitely an adjustment to do half a school year each in two different states, but adjust they did. One wished school would last a few more weeks, and one has been counting down the days until summer!