End of School Party and First Day of Summer Party

End of School Party

For my kids, this Thursday is the last day of school. I have a child who will also be having a promotion on that day. Here is a fun list of ideas to do for that day! To me, this day is about remembering the last year and all my kids did and all that they accomplished. I don't want it to be about hating school ("No More Books, No More Teachers Dirty Looks, etc"), so instead we focus on the great accomplishments.
For the promotion, I will bring flowers for my child. Don't we all love getting flowers?! I will also make sure to have my camera batterries ready (video and still)!
During the day I will put together a party for the kids. I will decorate with balloons (for my kids, balloons always mean a party). I am going to take the kids out to a nice dinner (we really only do this a few times a year, so this is a real treat for my kids). We also have a playroom for the kids. I will set this up as a sleepover. I will have beds all made up in there. They will get to watch videos and eat popcorn and movie like candy with it! Here are a few things I will have for my kids that night:
1. I am surprising my kids with a dinner out! This will start the night off wonderfully!
2. We will have an awards ceremony. I have printed up certificates to give out to each of the kids for specific things they have done well on, or improved on. Ideas for these certificates could be, Learned To Read, Improved Spelling, Friend to All, Hard Worker On Chores, Positive Outlook, Made It Into PI-the honors program, Dinomite Dancer, Super Soccer Star, Wonderful Wii-Fit Competitor, etc.
3. I have a 3 ring binder commemorating the last school year. It includes pictures of my children (school pictures, field trips, etc). It also has all the artwork and papers I kept over the last year. This 3 ring binder is just for the night as all of those papers will actually make their way into each child's personal school books (as I find time this summer). However, it's great to have them all together for us to go over and remember all we did during the last year. All of their certificates and awards are also in this binder! In this book I am working on a poem that will include highlights from the last year (specific reasons I am so proud of my kids and why they should be proud of themselves. Some examples would be one of my daughters has struggled with spelling this year and this last term she got 100%. It's quite an accomplishment).
4. We will make a list of things we all want to do this summer (swimming), places that we want to visit (the beach, Disneyland, Family in Utah, Flagstaff), things we want to accomplish (our home summer school goals), things we want to learn (sewing), and things we want to make (quilts for each of us, a playroom kitchen). If we post the list, we are more likely to make more of it happen!
5. I have put together a video of all the things my kids did during the last school year. This includes still pictures as well as video.
3. I will rent some movies for the kids to watch, as I know they want to pull an all nighter on that first night. I allow my kids a few nights of this, and then restrict them back to a schedule.


On Friday I have a First Day Of Summer Party planned:
1. My kids will be woken up by the smell of their favorite breakfast (log cabin french toast).
2. I will also have added to the balloons with Luaou decorations that I already have on hand.
3. Make a huge batch of bubbles, to use all summer. Use immediately!
4. Run through the sprinklers
5. Eat Ice Cold Watermellon-have a watermellon seed spitting contest
6. Use chalk to make a 4-square game, and hopscotch
7. Have picnic at park at end of street. Bring along a large cooler. Surprise them with a cooler full of water balloons, for a water balloon fight!
8. Eat Popsicles. Or if the ice cream man comes by, let everyone pick whatever they want!


Rebecca