School's Out for Summer

Alek and Katie finished a successful year at Golden Valley Charter School. Alek will be entering 7th grade and Katie will be entering 1st grade in August. I know they are both ready -- intellectually, emotionally and socially -- to move into these grades and am so grateful I chose to send them to a school where they are among the oldest kids in the class, rather than the youngest.

We received Alek and Katie's end-of-year reports from school this weekend. Here are a few of the nice things their teachers said about them.

Alek felt he needed to show his teenage attitude a month early

"Alek is a joyous, intelligent and compassionate young person who will use his considerable talents and gifts to affect the world in meaningful ways. I am glad to know Alek and to see the growth he went through this year was heartening. I am proud of Alek and the self-control he is developing."

"I am proud of all of the service that Alek has participated in this year. It is really good for him to look beyond his own situation as much as possible."

"His strength is in reading without a doubt, but he is also great at math. All year his scores were fantastic and his ability to talk about math with his peers and explain what was going on was very high."

Katie on the day of her fly away ceremony 

"Katherine has been the sunlight in the kindergarten these past two years. Her openness, joy and enthusiasm for life are intoxicating."

"She has been the puppet Queen of the Peach Blossom Kindergarten, selected early and often for help with puppet stories as the teachers know they can depend upon her to model with care and uprightness the proper way to present a puppet story. Equal to this is her capacity for retelling the story in drama play . . . Katherine delighted in speaking out the lines of her characters with clarity and convinction, so deeply do the images live in her. She was truly a wonder to behold, bringing so much joy to the hearts of her teachers and classmates."

"Katherine is a beautiful and sensitive child with a dreamy innocence that is rare these days."

Fitz started a pre-school program the day after Memorial Day. That meant he only got about two weeks of school in before the year ended, but although it was short in duration, Fitz loved the experience.

With his big boy backpack on his first day of school

Fitz and Charlie's last day of school was two weeks ago and we can all tell they are anxious to go back. Fortunately, they have an extended school year program which starts Monday and goes for the next 6 weeks. Then they have a couple weeks off and it's back to school. Fitz will be returning to his pre-school program and Charlie will be entering kindergarten. Yep, you read that right -- kindergarten. Where has the time gone? Kindergarten means a new school, a new teacher and new classmates. The class is a K-2 class and all the students have autism spectrum disorders. They also assign students from the older grades to be mentors to each of the students. I hope it will be a good experience for Charlie.

Charlie on his last day of school. The excitement is palpable.

Fitz on his last day of school