Ending the School Year Successfully!

 The start of the school year is a big deal and so is the end of the year! Our favorite tradition for end of the year fun is going through old papers and art projects. We have a filing cabinet where each school aged child has a folder. When they bring something home that they worked extra hard on or is extra cute, it goes in the folder. At the end of the year we look through the folder together. They pick 3 things to keep and I pick 3 things to keep. Then we put them in a binder with their last report card and their class picture, along with any special awards or certificates from the year. Each year we add a new binder divider and the new papers so it's all in one place. It's a fun and easy way to keep school mementos without taking up a lot of space. What are your favorite end of the year traditions?

Here is some great information to think about as your kids finish school from the people at Family Do Dots. 

For more information about the Family Do Dot system, feel free to visit their website at http://familydodots.com. They have created a "chore chart" to end all charts. It is an all in one system that they describe perfectly. Here is what they say: "Imagine taking your chore charts, behavior charts, goals charts, etc. and simplifying them into one easy-to-use Family System.  DoDots does all of this and more to teach responsibility, independence, and motivation to your children."

Graduation 2012

This was our first graduation at Chipman's Corner and it was a lot of fun. Thank you to all the parents and kids for an amazing year. I sure am going to miss you all!

(I'm going to apologize right now that I don't know what setting I had my camera on, but I am so sorry for the lighting in all these pictures, it is atrocious.Anyway . . .)

We did a short program where the kids showed what we learned and did a music performance for their moms and dads. Miss Diana has worked hard all year to teach the kids about notes and rhythms and I was blown away by how well they did showing what they knew.  Then we passed out diplomas, the books the kids had made, and took class pictures.

One of our moms made these awesome hats for the graduates and future graduates. I think she said she found the tutorial on pinterest. Thank you Cori!

 Here are the decorations I made for the event. It was a lot of fun putting it all together. The hanging mobiles were my favorite, they looked so much fun turning around above the table. Although, I had to use a needle to make the balloon banner and I don't know whose bright idea it was to make something using a needle and balloons. : )