This has been Dylan's best year yet as far as behavior being reported to me. I haven't heard any complaints. In fact, he has received a reward card (free pizza or Orange Leaf) from doing nice things without being asked that his teacher noticed. Like helping a friend clean up their mess they accidentally dropped on the floor. Or someone else with homework they didn't understand. It's been a nice change! I mean, he's always been a sweet kid. I'm just glad it's showing so much now. He meets with Mr B every Friday because Ryan and I requested that he see him because at the very beginning of the year there were a few things we saw that made us feel like he wasn't connecting certain actions with the consequences. Like pushing Sadie so hard she almost flew out of the car and smashed her head on the concrete. For something quite small that she did to him. And for kicking his primary teacher, which is never okay and he needs to learn a different way to communicate his displeasure/frustration. Anyway, I don't know what he talks to Mr B about, but after a few months Mr B reached out to me asking how I felt Dylan was doing. I told him he had been great with no problems at all and he could stop seeing him if he wanted. Mr B asked Dylan and Dylan said he wanted to keep seeing him so they have continued to meet (this is March). Dylan's teacher likes him. She writes cute notes on his papers, like when he uses Harry Potter references in his spelling word sentences, she comments on them. I'm so happy that he chose to get on her good side early on and didn't get "pegged" as the hyper/social kid. I don't know that she is the type of teacher to type kids, she's so sweet. But it's been a good year. I'm the room mom for his class so I've been in contact with her a lot. Dylan has been reading the Harry Potter series this year and really enjoying it. I love it!
Kylee read Harry Potter in second grade, and she tested on them and aced all the tests. But this year, three years late, she can not remember ANY of it! She read them all again along with Dylan (well, she started after him and then ended up passing him- she's pretty quick. So she finished and Dylan is on #6). She got to read them all again as if for the first time. I was a little jealous, I'll be honest. She had never read the last one. She flew through them. I love the kids referencing it. And my favorite is when we were watching one of the movies because it came on TV and I overheard Kylee say to Dylan, "I like the books better because you can know what they are thinking." Yes! Plus they can create bigger pictures in books. Books are always better. Okay, MOST books are. There are like two movies I've liked better (My Sister's Keeper, Time Traveler's Wife. Oh, and the TV show Vampire Diaries is much better than the dumb books.)
Kylee has had a great year. I've heard complaints about fifth grade from some of the other moms. And I agree that the communication with parents hasn't been the best. But Kylee is always on top of what she needs. So I guess the teachers expect the kids to be responsible for filling us in, or just taking care of it. Most of the things they've done are completed in class with little help at home. There's only been a couple things she's done here and mostly didn't need my help. So I assume the complaints are coming from kids that aren't as on top of it as Kylee. I feel like it's been a pretty great year, actually. Kylee has quadrupled her reading goal with the two Harry Potter books she was allowed to test on (because she took the other tests in second grade) plus the Cinder series I gave her for Christmas. Her math goal is another story and she's barely made it. But her teachers all have great things to say about her.
I knew Sadie was doing great because I read with her class every Monday. The reading has been really easy for her. And she's got a quick memory, especially when it involves songs and such. So she's learned all the sight words and everything else quickly. I've been really proud of her! Her teacher had great things to say about her also. She is nice to everyone, not talkative during class, smart.
Another nice thing that happened this year was Dylan and Kylee both got letters sent home asking for permission to test them for the GATE program. Which stands for Gifted and Talented something or other. It was fun because Dylan brought his home first, and after that I knew Kylee would get one too. It sounded like maybe 5 kids from each class were tested? They used to do the GATE program years ago but it had been cancelled before my kids were old enough. Back then it was an after school thing, which I'm not sure I would want to do. We have enough after school stuff. But I agreed to have them tested. Here are their test results and the explanation of each area.
Kylee was telling me about the tests a little. I thought it was interesting that one of the areas where they looked for special talent was creativity. She told me they gave them pages with dots or lines and they had to create a picture out of them and name the picture. It was fun to hear what they could remember and the things they came up with. I can't remember specifics now though. They spent a day doing that, a day doing "puzzles" and a day doing regular stuff like math and reading.
I was a bit blown away when I received Dylan's score putting him in the 97% for creativity. I started stressing a little that I should be doing more to help him grow in that area. So for Christmas I got him some Doodle Crates and Tinker Crates and also Zoobs which are building things kind of like legos. He didn't care much about any of them... Not until I gave a Doodle Crate to Kylee and she started working on it. Suddenly they both wanted to do ALL of it and wanted me to order more! Then I pulled out the Zoobs and started building things for Kaden, and suddenly Dylan didn't want to share anymore... Turns out he's more social than creative. Or he doesn't have enough patience to read the instructions and figure it out unless someone is with him.
Anyway, I got Dylan's results back first and was brainstorming his creativity needs, and then I got Kylee's back and she was also high in the 91%. What? Since when? I thought she was more like me...
The communication I received talked about how they were not going to do after school help. They were going to do more help in RTI (not sure what that stands for, but it's when they split up according to their level and go to a different teacher) being challenged more maybe. Or maybe a separate class at school. As far as I know, they have done nothing about it so far. They may be thinking of starting something next year maybe? I don't know. Whatever. I just want to see my kids doing well and happy, not too stressed out, having to try harder occasionally. I wish I could push them more in math. I tried at one point, to help them with their accelerated math, printing off practices at home, offering rewards. But it's not on the top of my priority list and they do so well in everything, I figure it's not a big deal to move them forward in math farther than they are going in class. Dylan didn't even reach his math goal this last trimester. They both love reading so much they just focus on that. He has a choice during class to work on math or reading and he always chooses reading. I kind of wish his teacher would insist he does math after he reached his reading goal. But whatever. I'm extra happy that Dylan no longer has to practice spelling words at home this year. He does it all in class, and he's done really great on all his tests. We actually haven't had much homework at all this year. Maybe that's why it's been such a good year :) Sadie has monthly homework we usually forget about and then I make her do it all in two days before she turns it in (for a treat, not a grade). And Dylan usually finishes up his work during free time in class, but rarely needs my help even if he brings it home. It's just a nice change because the last two years we've had to work on spelling words like every day. And whatever other things were in his packet. So yay for no homework. I'm enjoying this year because I have a feeling 6th and 4th and 1st grade will not be as great as this... Why do kids need homework anyway? Elementary school doesn't even matter...
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