Summer break begins

Today was the last day of school for the kids, which gives us a first-grader and a fourth-grader. Where have the years gone?

And they both finished with sterling report cards. All of Lincoln's many categories were "well-developed - surprise, surprise - and Levynn boosted her math grade back to an A to get all As again.

We think it helped that Levynn had a new teacher for the last two months or so. Had we mentioned that? Her original teacher, who had not impressed us (although Levynn liked him, sweet girl), suddenly left that career behind in April to take a job as a consultant for an educational book publisher. That left us even less impressed, as you can imagine.

Anyway, he was replaced by a teacher who had been working with special education kids. Dad and Lincoln knew her because she had been working with kids in his class. We expressed to her our concerns about Levynn's math progress, and she took an interest. She also went more slowly in math than the other teacher had, staying in one part of a unit longer to give the kids more time to understand it. We think it worked. Unfortunately, we're afraid the rest of the year's math is a blur to her. But the teacher gave us a booklet of extra work focusing on all those things for Levynn to do this summer.

As for Lincoln, who perhaps should have been doing some third-grade math himself, his last day had more pomp and circumstance. Parents were invited into the class for the last hour for an unofficial graduation-like ceremony and kindergarten-wide celebration.

Then Dad and the kids went directly into summer break mode. We went home just to drop off backpacks and headed for Lincoln's first piano class, another early birthday present - this one courtesy of Gram and Papa. (Hence that keyboard.)

It was a surprise, and he was very excited. By the time the classroom door opened and the teachers beckoned him inside, he was a little nervous. But at the end of class he came charging out, gave Dad a hug and said, "I LOVE my piano class!"

Here's a little peek into his 10-minute private session.