Day one of summer! It’s right at 8:00 as I start this. Two of the girls beat me out of bed, despite letting them stay up late and being told to sleep in, but one is still zonked out. Of course, we could still hear noise from that one’s room after 10:00 last night. I, happily, slept in until the time we would normally be walking out the door for the trip to St. P’s. And since Thursday is not a morning swim practice day, we get to lounge around for the first part of the day.[1]
So why, the question has been posed often over the past couple weeks, are our girls out of school so late? Especially since we’re still on a traditional schedule, rather than a balanced one. We started at roughly the same time last August as kids who have been out for a week or longer. Looking back at the calendar, we had a few extra Mondays off that public schools did not have. And there was a long weekend in February that was built into the schedule to make up snow days before Spring Break. But we had zero snow days this year. So that’s why our girls are out a full week after the neighbor kids.
At the end of every school year, I read through the girls’ report cards and say, with much enthusiasm, “Oh thank goodness, you passed!” For some reason they don’t think this is very funny. Which guarantees I will continue to do it each June.
I think all three had really good years. L. LOVED her first year at St. P’s. She loved her teachers, her friends, getting up in the morning and getting ready for school, Sunday nights because going back to school was one overnight away, etc. From talking to other parents who help out at recess, she is always in charge of games and spends just as much time with the boys as the girls. St. P’s doesn’t have a student council, but it did, I’d guarantee right now that L. would be class president one day.
One more funny note about her I can share now that the academic year has ended. Her teacher was new to St. P’s this year. At an early kickball practice the fourth graders got an sneak look at her before the rest of the school. When we picked M. up, she said to L., “I saw your new teacher. She is soooo pretty!” Turned out her teacher was indeed pretty. And about 15 years younger than I am. At some point early in the school year, L. told me that if anything ever happened to S., she would want me to marry her teacher. I told her not to repeat that at school. That’s how dangerous rumors get started. Which S. would just laugh at. But still, better to knock that shit down before my library shifts came with whispers that I’m the dad who wanted to marry Ms. H.
C. had a solid year, too. Her grades reflect her personality perfectly. They’re generally good, but kind of drift as her attention drifts. We know that she has been extra nice to a couple girls in her class who need a little help in school. She’s a friend to just about everyone, although we’re beginning to see some separation between her and the boys in her class. She’s getting more artistic every day, did terrific with math, and loves to read.
And M. had a tremendous end to her year. Her grades had been very good every quarter, especially back in the first quarter. But each quarter she had one grade that was relatively poor. She struggled with math a couple quarters. She blew one assignment in science and social studies in different quarters that pulled those grades down. But this quarter she rocked it. She missed one point total in both social studies and vocabulary. With one exception, all her grades were above 95%.[2] And she worked hard and kept her math grade above 90% as well. We were very proud of her work to end the year.
I think school sports were good for her, too. It really pulled that whole group of girls together. It’s nice that they’re all super close for just a while before they begin separating into groups.
Oh, and while we were leaving C.’s softball game the other night, a boy from M.’s class who was one field over was yelling goodbye to her as we left. Her cheeks got rosy and she had a weird look on her face. She did not respond. Now, I have no idea if he was just being silly, or if he wanted her to notice him. She’s shown no outward interest in boys. But it’s right around the corner. Shit.
So good academic years all around. The girls swam for the first time with their new team last night. Summer has begun.
Which is exactly what I need. My motivation to do pretty much anything dried up about three weeks ago. ↩
That’s what you need for an A these days. Am I remembering wrong, but wasn’t it 90% and above to get A’s when we were growing up? ↩