I read other people's blogs complaining about the end of the school year….teachers asking for donations of party food, costumes for plays, volunteers…gulp. We really don't mean to be insensitive to parents' time and family life; it's just that we're desperately trying to keep 26 children occupied for 6.5 hours a day when their energy level is at a 10 and their attentiveness for academics is at a 2.
Speaking of the end of the school year, I sent home a once inch stack of paperwork yesterday. Since my kids transition to a new school in the fall, my job is to purge the cumulative folders of all the paperwork earlier teachers scrambled to put in (which hasn't been looked at…ever.) There are cute little writing samples from kindergarten, math word problems, gobs of testing data and educational acronyms parents might not understand, but the students get a kick out of reliving their early childhood. I admit that I have a twinge of guilt sending home all those papers. If the parent is not one to declutter, I just added a great deal to the home's chaos.
Think through what to do with all the children's paperwork that comes home. Art projects, written essays, tests, and math papers involve a ton of decision making as to whether to preserve those memories or toss them. I had a box for each child and pulled the things I thought I would enjoy looking over later when they had flown the nest. To be honest, I've never gone through the boxes. I doubt they want the stuff either, but somehow it makes me feel closer to them knowing it's in the attic. I had a little scrapbook with pockets for each year where the children filled in special things about the year and kept a few mementos. Other than that, everything else was trashed. It's just overwhelming.
Someday, I will go through their boxes with them, and after we've all seen the essay on "What I Want to Be" and realize neither is a fireman or a cowboy, maybe then I can toss those pieces I saved.
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