Last Week of Second Grade

We’re slogging to the finish now – just one week left in second grade. I think there’s a special activity every day – and while I appreciate the joy this brings to the schoolhouse, I can’t help but feel we’re pretty much at the “glorified babysitting” portion of the year. Although, just to make it real, I understand there will be a test at some point this week. There will not, however, be homework* (thank you, universe).

There will be a picnic (today), two “early release” days – wherein the kids will leave school 2.5 hours early, Smartapalooza (think of it as field day for art), and who knows what else. Because I’m trying to seal the deal as flakiest mom of the year, I’ll also be begging the teacher if I can bring in birthday cupcakes to celebrate Connor’s summer birthday. I simply forgot to do it earlier. I had hoped I had done it when Connor had his 7^th birthday party, a month late back in September, but I was pretty certain I hadn’t. And Connor confirmed that indeed, he never got his cupcakes. I brought cookies three or four times this year, including one time that was just a thank you for all of the kind cards Connor received from his classmates when he broke his arm. I’ve been informed that these cookies don’t count on the “did I get cupcakes for my birthday this year” scoreboard.

*For the record, homework is not really an issue in our house. My policy is to give Connor ten minutes and tell him to finish his homework or go to school with it undone. Except for a couple of weeks when the babysitter took to bargaining with Connor to do the work (*@!*), and a few nights of rejecting the drawing pictures of word study words, Connor buckled down and got the work done. For the most part, I considered it a waste of time (as do the majority of analysts on the topic), even if it was only a few minutes each night. Starting about the third week of school, I told him he didn’t need to do anything that couldn’t be verified by the teacher the next day, so out went sorting and reading his words on Monday. And after Connor brought another perfect word study test home last month (I believe he missed three words all year – “announce” being the latest), I told Connor he should just give it a rest on the homework. But he wanted that sticker, so persevere he did. Never mind that there’s a whole box of stickers in the craft room he can get without doing anything other than reaching his hand in the box to retrieve one!

But alas, we’re solidly staring the end of the year in the eye, and no matter what happens this week, at 1:25 on Friday, Connor will be DONE with second grade!

 

Elaine