Joy School Graduation

Joy School has been a huge blessing for us this year. I hesitated to join this past year, knowing that I would have a new baby and not be able to contribute like I wanted, but I'm so glad I did. The other moms were gracious enough to give me several months off, so I was able to recuperate and get used to my new life. The blessings and benefits for Amalie have been phenomenal. She has a group of best buddies, learned how to socialize in a more formal setting, learned how to write all the letters of the alphabet and had a BLAST! And believe me, I loved having a two hour break the weeks I wasn't teaching! It is crazy that a whole school year has gone by and she has already completed one year!

We had a Joy School graduation on Saturday and it was darling! The kids sang some songs-I was so proud, since I had taught the last week and had to continue practicing their songs with them. Sometimes, getting them to sing was like getting a sixteen year old boy to do a ballet recital. (Sometimes they would just stand there and stare at me!) I finally figured out a good way to get them to sing- I pretended to be a seed, and told them I was a special seed that would only grow into a flower if they would sing loud. And boy, they did! They are such cute kids and we had such a great group- all the kids are well behaved, bright, intelligent, compassionate and imaginative. They are all so unique and it was fun getting to know them better.

One of my favorite benefits of Joy School is that I get to know the other moms. Sometimes, it is hard to be social, when I am just doing the mom thing- especially during the Winter, but this way it is easy to keep in touch with my friends. We even had a few Girls Nite Outs! They were awesome. (Lots of laughing and tons of fun!) It's so good for me to have girl friends!

The kids got cute little grad hats and certificates and report cards. We had a lovely pot luck and then broke open a pinata the kids had made with Natalie's help. It was a great way to end the year! (technically, it's not really graduation for Amalie, but she did finish a year. Hooray!)