Last Week(s) of School

June 2013

The last couple weeks of school were jam-packed with activities! And everything came to an end so quickly it was hard to believe that a whole school year had passed!!

June 7, 2013: Donuts w/ Dad

Sean and Ethan went early for the event and then I met them there so Sean could get to work.
{In May there was "Muffins w/ Mom".}

June 13, 2013: Teacher/Staff Appreciation from the Southworth Fam and one of my last Volunteer days

 For most of the major holidays I brought in treat plates for the staff at the school and I thought the end-of-the-year also called for a little sugar rush!

Triple-chocolate chip cookies, coconut-banana bread w/ lime glaze and lemon crinkles

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I think I worked most of the day as a volunteer because (unfortunately!) Ethan's teacher was moving after school got out and had to pack up her whole classroom! I really enjoyed getting to work in the classroom and spend time with the kids. Ethan had a great class and awesome teacher - we'll miss seeing her in the halls this year!

I also finally got to snap a picture of Ethan and his self-manager badge!!

This was a BIG deal as it took him most of the year to earn it! See, the majority of his class earned theirs toward the beginning of the year. They had to continually have green and blue days on their daily behavior reports {red = bad day/lots of reminders, yellow = ok, needed extra reminders, green = good day, only a couple of reminders and blue = great day, no reminders}. Well, we learned that even though Ethan is a great kid and has pretty good behavior, he is also very social and had a hard time staying on task and/or not chatting with his neighbor. So all year he struggled with this, showing no improvement. A typical week for him was at least one yellow day, often 2 yellow days and sometimes 3 yellow days! We tried a couple of different incentives, but saw no results. Mid-January we started a minimal monetary incentive {15 cents/day for green days and 25 cents/day for blue with a weekly bonus for no yellow days.} Ethan desperately wanted to save up for a $50 Imaginext Eagle castle. He was already half-way with some Christmas money from Grandma, but we wanted the rest to have to be earned slowly. Anyway, it still didn't take off for a couple months and then sometime in April something just clicked. Suddenly Ethan started coming home w/ mostly green days, a couple blue here and there and only a couple yellow days. Fast forward another couple weeks and Ethan was coming home with ALL green and blue days. 

Mid-May Ethan was finally given the self-manager application which included writing 3 reasons why you should get one and having ALL your teachers (library, music, classroom, PE, playground and lunchroom) and parents sign it. Anyway, self-managers wear a special badge and get extra privileges, like eating lunch in the classroom w/ the teacher on Wednesdays, choosing where to sit and the occasional bonus recess.

It would have been totally fine if Ethan hadn't ended up earning his badge, but we were sure proud of the turn-around he had with his behavior. He truly worked really hard to not talk during work time and even had to ignore his friends sometimes or say to them, "I can't talk right now, I'm trying to have a green day." By the end of year, his teacher said he was showing excellent leadership skills. :)

June 17, 2013: Last full day of school and last homemade lunch.

I packed Ethan's lunch every single day, minus a couple when Sean filled in for me when I was sick and the ONE day Ethan wanted to try having hot lunch. This was a pretty typical lunch for him... PB & Honey on wheat sandwich, string cheese, fruit, veggies, a drink, a treat and vitamins {it's easier for me to remember that way}. And whatever he didn't eat at school came home with him and was part of his after-school snack. No wasted food at this house!

June 18, 2013: Last day of school!!

Well, we were LATE on the last day of school! Ha ha!! First time we had to go to the office for an unplanned tardy slip. But I didn't care. It was my fault and it was excused. We were busy getting the last few things for Ethan's teacher's gift...

 

It included a lime cilantro candle {$1 at Walmart}, some chocolate covered coconut almonds {available at Costco and sooo good!} and homemade coconut lime sugar scrub {just coconut oil, white sugar and fresh lime zest}.... Do you see the coconut/lime theme I had going on?? I also threw in a staple remover {as a joke AND needed office supply... I was always having to go borrow one from the copy/work room when I'd come in to volunteer and change wall displays} and a Starbucks gift card.  

Ethan and his Kindergarten teacher.

Pick-up time that day was just a couple hours later, but it was a fun, last day for the kids to be together.  

This almost made me cry.... All the staff and teachers lined up to wave and see off the kids riding the buses! It was so sweet to see them all waving and yelling to each other to have a good summer!