Now completing their scholastic year, our students in fifth, eighth, and twelfth grades are leaving their schools and have their own accomplishments to celebrate. This is a good time to look at and celebrate what your child has accomplished. Also celebrate what you, as parents, accomplished, either in your child’s education or furthering your own.

        Children are used to having their birthday celebrated. As part of our culture, we customarily have a child blow out as many candles as he has lived years. What about using this familiar scene to extend toward the entire family’s accomplishments at the completion of the school year?

        Let each child determine her or his accomplishments with one candle per child. This is not the awarding of a degree, but it is customizing what you and your family have accomplished during the preceding school year.

        Parents can also celebrate their contributions toward the kids’ success in school. They get candles, too! After all, children’s education is a family-wide process. Children need to understand that it takes all members cooperating to make their achievements.

        Be sure to include any adult education that the parents completed. This is a clear message to the children that education is a life-long pursuit.

        It’s a fine time to have everyone listen to each other and not only decide how to celebrate their accomplishments, but decide how they want to do it: pizza party, cake and ice cream, trip to the beach, or picnic in the park.

        What matters most is that everyone has something to celebrate and everyone has a say in how it will be celebrated: an event that shows children how important education is to the family.