School is out! You have no idea how incredibly relieved those three words make me. What a stressful year it was for both of the girls! They both really need some time off and time spent just being teenagers - friends, sleepovers, trips to the mall, the beach, vacation, good books, boyfriends, and lots of ice cream.
I'm increasingly unhappy with the amount of academic stress the school systems put on our kids. Emily's been taking college courses since she was a sophomore and her finals "week" lasted a month - AP exams followed by two or three finals per class in most classes. CRAZY. And just too much pressure. It's not necessary and I certainly don't think that turning our kids into academic/AP/robots at 15 is going to help them succeed in life.
Unfortunately, we're stuck in this system that pushes them at such an early age that they run out of classes to take other than AP classes. For example, Libby's been taking high school math classes since 7th grade. Andrew was placed in a high school math class this past year in 6th grade and I pulled him. It's too much. Too much pressure, too much stress. It's bad enough that he'll have to start this year in 7th grade, simply because there's nothing else to take. They push them so fast and so hard in elementary school that they don't have a choice.
We're a family who places a lot of importance on academics, reading, life-long learning, and celebrating scholastic achievements. BUT. There comes a point when enough is enough.
I'm at that point. Can you tell?
How about some project life to celebrate a break from all of that?!
I'm still totally inspired by the new Big Shot Templates (you can find them here and here) that were released last week. I love being able to shift the focus of a layout simply by having an enlarged photo. I also used a brand-new kit this week - Stampin' Up! Happy Times Edition.
Another reason I love the Big Shot Templates is that they give each page just a bit more of a clean and simple feel. And you know that's totally me!
Even with a very colorful page full of photos, the page still feels clean and linear. LOVE that!
And hey, now that school's out and I don't have all that second-hand stress from the kids' stress, maybe I'll find more time for scrapbooking and blogging. We'll see.
Happy Monday!
