End of an era

Okay, not really an era. ;) But yesterday was Asher's last day of Options. 

Nathan and I were invited to attend the awards assembly at the end of the day. Each teacher gives out a SOAR award for each of his/her classes. SOAR stands for Safety Ownership Achievement and Respect and is a motto that the school uses throughout the year to help guide the students in those areas. Teachers selected one student from each class that they felt best exemplified one or more of those qualities.

Asher was recognized by his PE teacher for her older kids class. I'm not sure why he's making that face, lol.

Here are all of her class SOAR award recipients:

Micah was recognized by his drama teacher (and was very smiley up there at center stage, lol)...

So proud of these boys of mine! To my recollection, they've received awards at the year-end ceremony every single year. :) 

After all the awards had been given out, the principal called all of the eighth graders up on stage to be recognized. Asher tried to hide out over on the far right...

This was Asher's ninth year of Options. He started way back in kindergarten...

(Isn't he adorable?!) I'm pretty sure, too, that he's one of the only (if not *the* only) students in Fort Collins to have gone all the way through from 2008 (when the Options program first began here) to now. (Technically, we did a year of the Loveland "Options" program in the middle but it was much of the same staff and definitely the same program so I'm counting that.)

And now Asher's done with Options. :(

We're sad to see that come to an end...as it's been such a welcome addition to our homeschooling routine. But. The PSD Options program only goes through eighth grade...their partner hybrid program (homeschooling but with time on site) doesn't appeal to us due to the lack of control over the curriculum and expectations...and Asher has no interest in attending any of the local high schools. So. We're going to homeschool high school for Asher. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge and think it's definitely got the potential to be fantastic.

(Sidenote: Micah still has another couple years of Options. So we're not saying goodbye altogether. Similarly to when Noah stopped going to Options, this will just be a new chapter.)