So if you noticed our earlier Wordless Wednesday post, you saw the small ceremony we had for Miss Grace, for her completing 5th grade and officially moving on to MIDDLE school!
In talking with different people, with kids in different schools (and home schooled), I determined that no one really does this anymore. Which seems odd...
Even in homeschool, we honor Kindergarten grads with a mini-graduation ceremony, as they move to 'big kid' school. Yet some of those kids were only in school for 1 year, and honestly Kindergarten nowadays is really more like first grade. So why do we have a big pomp over it, but then ignore when our 5th graders move to Middle School?
Which is really worth rewarding the effort?
The kid who played well with others, worked on the ABCs, colors and numbers, or the kid who finished 5 years of school, learning what in essence was all the schooling their great grandparents ever received?
OR
Take Miss Grace's elementary years for example: she had issues with phonics which led to not reading at grade level, with oral and digestive issues that caused not only anxiety but bullying, had undiagnosed dyslexia (don't get me started on THAT one!), a routine of 2-3 hours of homework EVERY school night, and onset of ADHD symptoms. YET that same kid held down a A/B+ average ALL 5 years, even getting honor roll multiple years. Then when we brought her home, she worked on understanding her issues, finding ways to work with them, and bringing her reading level up 2 grades and working at 1-2 grade levels above grade in most of her classes.
Yup. Pretty easy to see who.
So why don't we anymore?
Even the move from Middle School to High School isn't honored much.
SIGH.
Educators, and parents, put so much academic stress on kids these days, but giving kids an honor roll certificate isn't really much is it?
CELEBRATING each level of achievement?
That might just make it that much more rewarding for kids!
As Miss Grace is home schooled, we chose to have our pastor give her a graduation blessing, award the diploma and 'flip the tassel'. It was such a wonderful moment. It wasn't huge, it lasted maybe 10 minutes. But the JOY and LOVE she received from people who have supported her, from before she even came into our lives, was SO worth rejoicing over! Because when you truly think about it, her fellow congregation members are the ones who swore at her baptism to help raise her in the Lord's strength, to remind her of God's lessons, and to help build her character, as a daughter of Christ. If that isn't schooling, I don't know what is! So they SHOULD be there for her milestones!
God is at the center of our home schooling, as it is with so many homeschoolers. Miss Grace even designed our crest with that in mind! Our crest features a cross in front of a compass, surrounded by laurel leaves, with a banner and Latin wording for "Truth is the Light". I was SO proud of her for thinking not only WHAT she wanted her schooling to be about (God's truth), but striving for excellence and knowledge that can take her anywhere in the world, and coming up with a crest that showed all of that! Sometime's her logic just SLAYS me! And if God is central, then shouldn't we celebrate those milestones, in HIS house?
What do YOU think?
Maybe we've given your family an idea on how to celebrate YOUR child's achievements too!
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