Ooooooooooh, boy!

I have JOY!!!

Today was my last day teaching Tanner's Joy School Pre-school class.  Oh, boy.  is right!!!

I have VERY mixed feelings about Joy School. I had mixed feelings when I started and those feelings have kindof swam around in my brain as I've tried to decide what I love and what I don't love about Joy School...

LOVE the rotation of teaching...I don't mind teaching or even preparing, so the fact that I only had to do it maybe once a month is a plus.  Taylor loved participating when it was at our house.
LOVE the laid-back-ness...If something doesn't fit in or there are kids throwing a tantrum, it's not hard to change it up a bit and do something else.  I had to do this nearly every lesson, and for the most part, it all worked out.
LOVE that all the lessons were on-line for me to print...if I needed a copy, I didn't have to run any where, just printed the exact page I needed.  Even though I ended up printing EVERY lesson so I have a hard copy (school supply nerd!) I still used the online just as much though.
LOVED what Tanner learned.  I feel like he has really blossomed...would he have without Joy School?  I don't know; but I really like the values and principles that were taught and have seen some of what he's 'learned' come out in every-day play and every-day conversations.

MEHHHHH about the lesson plans.  I liked the overall 'themes' that the Eyers started with, but lets be honest...I didn't follow every lesson plan to a "T"...some of those stories and activities were just boring...but then back to the flexibility....then back to the age-group (3-5 yr olds) and then back and forth and back and forth.
MEHHHHH about the lack of updatedness (is that even a word?  LOL!)...I'm pretty sure that if they're charging what they're charging for a membership and fees that it's affordable to update the handwritten music and scratchy recordings, old school images, and whatnot.  Just my personal opinion.

In fact, all of those are my opinions.  So whatever.  I tried to overlook the downsides because they were things I could change if I wanted. :) I just have so much joy that we (Tanner and I) made it through the year.  It was a good enough experience that I'm considering doing it again with Taylor...we'll just have to see.

We are not going to be around when the Joy School does the Graduation Party, but I still offered to help in any way I could...So I made mortarboards and tassels for Tanner and his friends.

They turned out WAY better than I had thought they could.

One mom was saying she 'normally' sews them, and I probably would have, but cardboard is just so much easier...and after thinking about the time and money I could spend and how long they were going to last, I just decided to go the $4 all together route and do poster board.  For reals...Super Easy!

We plan to do a little Graduation Party of our own at my parents' house with my sister who is also graduating...from HIGH SCHOOL!  Ack!  I'm getting old.  

Here's our graduate: