Let's Hear It For Spirit Week
Just kidding. BRING ON THE RANTS
Yesterday was day six of our school’s end-of-year 26-day-long “ABC Countdown,” which my elementary schooler gets excited about for months but almost always results in tears (this year, it happened on the very first day — do we get a prize?). And yes, you read that right. It’s 26 days long.
Each day represents a different letter of the alphabet, with an activity that corresponds to that letter. So, for instance, yesterday was “Favorite Book Day,” in which students were supposed to bring their favorite books to school, which sounds fun, but wasn’t, because I spent the early morning in a frenzy trying to help my 9-year-old find her copy of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (which, god bless her that this is her favorite book), only to eventually realize we gave it away, which was Very Disappointing.
I appreciate that most of our school’s theme days don’t require extra purchases (though we will definitely be getting a replacement copy of AYTGIMM, stat), and they are rarely, in theory, difficult to prepare for — and yet, these are elementary school kids we are talking about, so of course it’s difficult. (To be clear, I do actually love the idea of spirit weeks…. I just wish they were as easy and fun in practice for parents as they are in theory.)
Today I want to hear your spirit week / school countdown-related stories, because I imagine that many of you are enjoying enduring these now, too. What kinds of ridiculous things have they called for? Have you had to make purchases? Have they resulted in panic and/or tears? Please share in the comments!
Haven't heard of an ABC countdown, that sounds like A LOT. My kids' school does the occasional spirit week and I'm very relieved that my kids see it as a menu of "I like this day so I'm going to do it" and "I don't care about this so I'll skip it" items. If they got stressed about it I would not be a fan.
OMG. The only day my kids cared about was A Day because you could bring a stuffed animal. The only day I cared about was F Day because I knew they would like bringing in books and it felt “easy” — except then we ALL FORGOT ABOUT IT YESTERDAY. I realized at like 7pm and my 6yo just said “oh Mama, I like plenty of books.” 😂 I remember this happened last year too — we just fully stopped paying attention to the countdown by D or E day. It’s almost the end of the year, we’re barely making it there as it is and this year is also consumed by all the 5th grade moving up celebration stuff… I think it just DOES NOT NEED TO BE THE FULL ALPHABET?! Gah.