School's Out! (Well Almost)

Today is the last day of school for the boys! They did great this year. Especially because this year has been kind of crazy with having Ginger, Ken getting a new job, the numerous trips we've taken, and the thought of moving hanging over us... So this year, they took on alot more responsibility for getting their homework done, their projects done, and papers signed off.

Yesterday we went to Darin and Nathan's Awards Assembly. Honestly, I just have to Brag. They are both totally AWESOME!

Nathan's Awards: The Most Caring Award, The Best All Around, and A Honor Roll for the entire year!
(A honor roll means you have to get straight A's, and you would think he's in 2nd grade it really can't be that hard. But you would be wrong, it really is. They only get letter grades in the core subjects, but they are really precise in how they grade. And in Nathan's class of 20 kids, only 3 were on the A Honor Roll for the entire year!)

Darin's Awards: The Most Dependable, The Bulldog Pride Award, and A Honor Roll for the entire year!
(The Bulldog Pride Award is for students, as they say; students who are doing what the should, when they should; working hard, everyday, showing respect and caring about everyone around them all the time. It's a big, big deal!)

Both of the boys also got medals for getting 100% of their AR goal!
I'll explain AR for those of you without kids in school yet. AR is a point system where they get so many points based on the reading level of the book after they pass a test on the chapter books they have read. It's been a super big deal to my boys, Nathan especially since it was his first year. He was so cute, he is really competitive with Darin so his goal ended up being 1.6 points higher then his brother's and he was really proud of that. They pick what their goal will be individually with the librarian and with their teacher. Darin is in the Gifted and Talented Program, so he is always more accelerated, plus he is a grade higher, but Nathan like to keep up with him. So far it has worked to our advantage mainly because they have different interests; but also because Nathan loves Darin and wants to be like him so he will work harder, and Darin loves to teach Nathan (and all of us) cool things and he cheers his brother on (for the most part;-).
Anyway, back to the point. Nathan was so happy he was ahead of Darin in reaching his AR goal all year long, but a few weeks before he got it Darin, being his sneaky quiet self, beat him to it. And Darin came home one day and announced without much enthusiasm or anything, "Yeah, I got my AR goal today." So to show his brother Nathan picked a book that had 8 AR points (it's like 5th grade reading level) even though he only needed 3 points to get to his goal and he was 2 chapters away from reading a book that was worth 3 points. It took him 3 weeks to read the 8 point book. And then he passed off his 8 pt book and his 3 pt book at the same time. So now he is super proud that he beat his brother in points, plus he made it to 110% of his AR goal.

Anyway, I'm soooooooo very glad school gets out today. I always have so much more fun when they are home for the summer. And I'm glad that the schedule gets easier. The first fun thing on our agenda, is thier cousins visiting for 2 weeks! The boys can't wait for their favorite people in the world to come!