School's Out for the Summer

Yesterday was the last regular day of school for the kids and today they went back for the morning for orientation for the next school year. Alyssa has finished grade 6, and today got oriented to the junior high by her father, Principal Doig. The kids all passed, including Mark who's report said that he had "completed the program of study for Gr. 2." I guess it's pretty much impossible to fail. The kids have also finished soccer, softball, piano, band, and everything else. Now Alyssa is doing summer swim club and Austin and Preston will be starting swimming lessons next Monday.

Pardon me if I brag for a second here. Yesterday afternoon they had a little Gr. 6 award ceremony. Alyssa received the awards for the highest marks in Social Studies and Math, taking after each of her parents who were math and history majors, respectively. Her teacher said that she knew more about provincial politics than he did, a comment which drew applause from the crowd. Alyssa was also named the most dedicated soccer player by her coach at their evening wind-up party. She got her RCM Gr. 3 piano mark, a respectable 79% better than her mother ever managed.

Rob has one more day of work (if he can get everything done) and then we have a summer to look forward to as a family. We have managed to get our boat out twice so far, both times in a little 2 or 3 hour window between events. Luckily Jensen's reservoir is only about 5 miles out of town. Preston has even taken a turn on the tube. It was so cute, Alyssa was with him, but fell off and he ended up being by himself on the tube. The first time we went out Austin tried out our new kneeboard which has a hook on it which we thought would make it easier for him to get up on his knees--the hook holds the rope for you. However, he had a terrible time trying to stay on and we finally realized that with the way his body is proportioned, he can't hold onto the rope or else he is to front heavy on the board. The second time we went out, he tried just hanging onto the board and he had a great pull all around the lake. I am really looking forward to my family coming to visit so that we can take them out on the boat too. I can just picture tube wars with the Prete cousins like we have always done with the Doig cousins on our annual trip to Wasa Lake.

I am hoping to sit down with the kids in the next day or two and talk about summer jobs they will do each day. Summer is by far my favorite season of the year, but the challenge is not to let the lack of structure result in everyone's good habits going to pot.