Last Day of School!

Well, yesterday was the last day of school. What a fun day! We had such a good time! But it was also a very sad day. Particularly because my kids know I won’t be back next year, so we were really saying “goodbye,” not just “see you after the summer.” There were tears from a handful of them. Some of the parents were getting sentimental too. It was very sweet, and made me feel loved. I guess I’m doing something right as a teacher to get such a heartfelt farewell.

The nice thing about daycare, though, is I will be running a summer program for about 1/3 of my kids, so I only had to say goodbye to 2/3 of them yesterday. We’ll go through this all over again in 9 weeks!

I want to share some of the gifts I received yesterday, because they were very, very sweet.

The most creative gift, in my opinion, was from a 9-year-old boy and his mom. This boy was one of the first kids I met on my first day of work 2 years ago, and he’s always had a special spot in my heart. He’s one of the only kids that has come to my program just about every day, including summer, since I became the school age teacher.

As part of my school age environment, I take pictures of my kids, then print out and post the pictures on a monthly basis. When the month is over, I take the pictures off the bulletin board, and send them home for the parents. This clever mom used a couple pictures that I had taken of her boy, and framed them for me. This not only gave me a memento of her boy, but also of my program as a whole. Both things I will miss very much.

There was an 11-year-old girl in my program with whom I became very close. Not only did we share a birthday, but we also shared a love of penguins (to a ridiculous degree). She often talked to me about her life, and I shared some of my past life experiences with her. I often told her she knew way too much about my personal life. She was beside herself yesterday when it came time to say goodbye. Totally inconsolable. Apparently her mom was crying in the truck before coming in to say goodbye as well.

Her gift to me was an address book, decked out with penguin stickers, with her contact information as the first entry under her last name’s letter. She also gave me a penguin luggage ID tag, which was cute. I’m going to attach it to my school bag when I start back to university in September. And, of course, she gave me a Tims Card, to follow up on the hot chocolate and apple fritter she would bring me every Friday throughout the year.

The final gift I want to highlight was from a 5-year-old boy. His mom and dad are the most energetic, positive, and fun parents I’ve ever met. And their kids (the other is a 3-year-old girl at the daycare) are the most fun, positive, energetic kids too! I love that family. The boy was pretty mopey yesterday when I reminded him that it was our last day together, but I’ll still see him a little bit over the summer because his sister will be at the daycare.

His gift (or rather, their gift) was a flower in a pot decorated with the words “bloom where you are planted.” His mom said she chose that pot because I’m going to be relocating in order to grow as a teacher.

There were some other gifts, some special treats, and lots and lots of hugs and kisses. It was an amazingly fun/sad/reaffirming day. A great day of appreciation after a school year that was, at times, very hard to handle. As a teacher, I pour most of my life into my program and the children in it. Evenings and weekends at home are spent planning and preparing for the days to come at school. It is very nice to receive so much recognition on that last day of school.

9 more weeks, and I’m off to school myself. Maybe I should think back on yesterday when it comes to my last day of school.