Countdown

image source: http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.ca/2010/01/holiday-countdown-calendar.html

Sing to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands”

There are 14 days of school, shout hooray!

There are 14 days to go, shout hooray!

There are 14 days to go,

Tell everyone you know,

There are 14 days of school, shout hooray.

I happened to overhear a version of this from a Kindergarten room at my sons’ school the other day. (There was something more earnest and learning-positive in the middle in the teacher’s version. I just made up something that scanned for the purpose of story-telling.) It’s been stuck in my head ever since. Counting down, counting down, counting down….

It’s not quite clear to me why the JK and SK set need such precise knowledge (or, indeed, daily reminders) of when the last bell will ring, but I had mixed feelings when I heard that song.

June always wears me right out. The final push, the dash to the finish line. It’s so very difficult to keep everyone motivated, to keep the ship running tightly.

Eldest is half-heartedly studying for exams that his teachers and principal seem at pains to tell him are not all that important. I guess the idea is to downplay things so that the kids don’t get anxious, but we could use just a touch more anxiety over here.

Middlest is working hard finishing work for his extra-curricular classes, but once that’s done this week, he’s off the hook until the last bell rings. The classrooms get awfully hot and stuffy. Great work does not get done in June.

Youngest is in SK, so he’s just waiting for the days when he can play soccer all day at soccer camp. Summer Nirvana.

I am quite genuinely looking forward to the last bell, too. We always have a pajama day on the first day of summer, with sugary cereal and unlimited screen time and no set bedtime. In other words, feed yourself breakfast kids, and leave me alone with my books. My summer nirvana.

I’d love to let the kids coast gently into that summertime bliss…

But wait! Before the final bell rings, before we can laze around in our pjs, before we can spend full days at camp doing exactly what we love best, we have to get ready for a major renovation to the second floor of our house. The renovation begins the very same week the kids finish school.

No rest for the weary.

So in this final dash to the finish line, we will be spending our evenings purging toys, packing up the bookshelves, storing away the hockey gear, and getting ready to seal off the playroom and the laundry room. (Yikes! Sealing off the laundry room is not high on my list of things to look forward to.)

I am genuinely looking forward to that purge, but, oh!, the energy it requires.

There are 14 days to go before the hammers fall….