End-of-school activities

Even though our school has been out since early May, most of our end-of-school activities still took place in June.  Here we have Mariposa's last Little Flowers class, which was a party where siblings were invited:

playing tag in the parish hall

lots of yummy snacks outside on the lawn

Mariposa with some of her friends (and James)

 Then the next day we had state standardized testing.  Oregon requires notification of intent to homeschool starting at age 7 (on September 1st), and testing in certain grades.  Third and fifth grades are a few of the "lucky" years ;o) and since our Portland homeschool group organizing group testing at the end of each year, earlier this month we drove in for the event.  Note: while I am not pro-testing by any means, I do realize that the "testing-game" is a necessary one in our society so I do make sure my kids are tested when required, and that they have prepared with appropriate test-prep materials. I also intend to heavily prepare for the SATs/ACTs when the time comes.  While standardized testing may not show the true awesomeness of my children, it is one area where they can shine and hopefully open some college doors to more opportunities.

4th grade and above were in one room

Bunny, waiting to begin

Hannah (neighbor, home from college) watched the younger kids all morning, so I had a fabulous time in a small waiting room with 3 of my homeschooling friends.  We had a great discussion and I really enjoyed catching up.  When testing was done, I took Bunny and James out to lunch before heading home.  It was a very nice morning despite the reason for our outing!