Say goodbye to Fifth Grade

Well tomorrow is THE day.

Tomorrow - June 3 - is Olivia's last day of elementary school. She's moving out of 5th grade and the safe confines of elementary school and moving into 6th grade and bigger pond of middle school.

I can't bring myself to call it "junior high" because...well, because it's 6th grade. And I refuse to believe that my oldest "baby" is old enough to be in junior high.

Because I swear THIS was just last week:

And then all of a freaking sudden my "baby" is getting ready to start middle school and the last week of elementary school was spent in "health class" talking about "human development" (yeah, boobs and periods!)

Oh. My. Freaking. God.

This was taken the first day of 5th grade last fall:

And then this was taken two weeks ago at a Mud Hens baseball game:

Shut. Up.

As it is, I am fully prepared to be a weepy mess tomorrow as my soon-to-be-sixth-grader walks out of elementary school for the last time. 

Middle school here we come. Ready or not. 

Are YOU Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Today was one of THOSE days when I want to punch the people who came up with Common Core right in the throat.

Hard.

Olivia is in fifth grade. She has 109% in math according to her mid-term grade card. She's sort of a math whiz kid.

Except when this happens:

I mean seriously.
W.T.F.?

I have two college degrees (journalism and law) and I can't figure it out. My husband has one college degree (bachelor of science in business). He spent MORE THAN AN HOUR with Olivia trying to figure out the answer.

We called my dad - a CPA with two college degrees. He was somewhat stumped and said he'll work on it and call us back. That was an hour ago.

I took to Facebook and asked for help. A friend sent her answer. Another friend said she used algebra to figure out the answer (which is great, except fifth graders don't use algebra - but damn, wouldn't that impress the teacher!?!).

Olivia thinks she found the right answer - and it was the same as my friend's so we have that going for us.

Then, there was this spelling homework:

Olivia is supposed to use FOUR of the "challenge words" to write about what it would be like if she went on a trip to study an unusual animal. Because, you know, words like "forfeit," "orchestra," and "hoard" really make me think ANIMALS.

It took every ounce of self control that I have to not be SNARKY and have Olivia write some totally off the wall sentences. Like: "I used to hoard cats when I was a child. But I had to forfeit them when animal control came to my house. So the fact that I get to visit Australia to study the platypus is a rarity. I sure hope I get to stop in Sydney and see the orchestra play."

I thought that might be a bit TOO much.

So we settled on this instead:

Suck it Common Core.
Suck. It.