But, This Time Next Year...

I may have mentioned last week that the school year is over. Finally. This winter was sort of killer for Kentucky. It was snowy and icy and cold. Usually, we don't have all of those factors at the same time. I have a joke about our annual snow, in fact. This year, we had around 30 snows. And a couple of icings. Which resulted in 19 snow days and a way later than usual year end.

I know some people are still slogging through school and some people are on year round schedules, but it seemed to last forever to me. Until the very end. I swear, I think the last quarter lasted about ten days. All Brynna's teachers seemed to agree too.

In any case, at the end of the year, everything seemed kinda routine and normal. Maren had her parent luncheon and end of the year picnic and Brynna had her awards day. (In case you were wondering, my kid had the top average in Math, top average in Reading, all A honor roll in the last quarter, and received the Creativity Award*.)

And, here I am, completely devoid of anxiety about next year. For the first time ever, we know now and not two weeks before the beginning of the year that Brynna got into her school again. (We're enrolled out of district and have to reapply every year.) That means that I will know which supply list to buy from, that she will have friends in her class next year, and that I will actually know where everything is.

She's been switching classes now for two years, so there's no change to how her day will go. She's met all of her speech goals, so there's not going to be an IEP to deal with next year. Next year, she's a queen of the school and all I have to do is play chauffeur and sign permission slips.

As for Maren, she started the Extended Day program at school (which is basically kindergarten) at the beginning of second semester this year and has excelled in pretty much everything. She is developing math skills at a frankly terrifying pace and is doing really well with her reading. After another year of Extended Day, I can't imagine that she won't be ready for anything and everything first grade can throw at her.

Next year, in short is going to look very much like this year. Same schedule, same routines, nothing really very new.

Of course, it's going to start in seven weeks, because we're getting out so late. And it's going to be Year Five of 5:45, but all in all, I feel pretty nonplussed by all of this.

Next year, though. This time next year I will be prepping myself to be the parent of a middle schooler and an elementary student. I will be trying to get Maren into Brynna's school, which is like a shot in the dark. I will have two supply lists. Next year is going to be crazy.

This year, I'm just going to try to relax and not pay attention to any of that.

*The Creativity Award is especially impressive to me, because it was voted on by the students. I only got one thing ever voted on by the students and that was Most Sophisticated in 7th grade. I found out later that it was because most seventh graders thought that was some sort of insult. And really, that was okay, because in a way it proved my sophistication.