I am only hsing one of my four kids right now. The rest were finishing up the year in ps. We have spent the last week going watch the ps kids get their end of year awards. Even though DS has not said anything I can tell he feels left out. I want to surprise him with some awards. I am thinking one for finishing a grade and one for perfect attendance. What other awards do you give your kids. Also is there a free site to print them off at. Thanks.
I have given perfect attendance certificates before, and I've also given awards for those who accomplished more than one year's work in one year, or more than one semester's work in one semester. That's easy to figure when you're doing textbook/workbook style stuff, but I imagine that it would be much harder to figure if you're doing unit studies or other type stuff. You might consider one for "excellence" (however you define that) or "achievement" (however you define that) in a particular subject area. I've given certificates for "good citizenship" for good conduct grades (defined by working independently, following instructions, finishing the day's work pretty consistently, and such as that). I have found award ribbons at Dollar Tree and given those, sometimes.
I haven't done anything like that, but it sounds like a good idea, especially in your situation. I just googled free printable awards and this site came up, it looks prefect for this sort of thing. http://www.123certificates.com/ http://www.billybear4kids.com/show/awards/certificates.html is another and it has suggestions for awards, too.
I ususally give out "you've completed X grade" fun little things - to make them feel like all that work they did really accomplished something. I just make them on the computer - my older son will have a more "formal" looking one for 8th grade promotion this year, but my younger kids will get fun ones with little animal pics that read like "Good job buzzing through first grade!" with a bee on it or something.
I plan to next year cause my son had 2 years of PS so he's used to getting awards at the end of the year. Like this year he got a good behavior award, handwriting genius award, and I forget what else. Also, a cool idea, think outside the box with awards. This year his school gave the kids dog tags for awards. He LOVED them. He responded to them much better than paper awards. like these http://www.motivators.com/Cheap-Promotional-DogTags-Custom-33-284.html I may do this for his end of the year awards next year.
Awards sounds fun! I can imagine going out to a family dinner and inviting extended family too.... having an awards ceremony of sorts. ETA: my brother and SIL homeschool as well; it could truly be a familiy thing! fun!
I give out end of year certificates for completion of each subject in that grade. I also give rewards and award certificates for special projects or exceptional work. End of year certificates are complete with party and cake (small scale but still fun). We also do special things for the beginning of a new year, "not back to school", holidays, and events.
No I don't do any of that stuff. After we are done we get together with other homeschooling family and do something fun or get with daddy and do something fun. This year we went with a neighbor and got crepes. That's a treat because they are about $5 each and you times that my 4 it gets pricey. When daddy gets home we are going to an amusment park.
This was our first year of homeschooling and I did give the kids awards and a little diploma saying that they completed the grade they were in. I also did home school report cards for them. DD got an award for most creative imagination and DS got an Award for most improved. My children enjoyed getting them as it was something they could show to the grandparents and the dad and say "SEE? I did great!" My children are 9 and 7
