Halfway

The conclusion of school for 2010 on December 17th also marked the end of the 2nd quarter, or roughly the halfway point for the school year. Along with that milestone, the kids received their second quarter report cards last week.

I'll start with Quinn. He got a very good report card, with all C's and 3 S+ grades in his subjects. His conduct grade was noted with an improving self control, definitely a good thing. He continues to ace 3rd grade. I am a little concerned that it is not challenging enough but when I asked about the advanced program at their school, I was told that it does not start until 4th grade and there is no budget to include 3rd graders. Quinn would definitely be a candidate but I'm not going to fight it any further. He's doing just fine, and may not be all that challenged but still loves school and loves to learn so it will work out for now.

Now, Keely. She got good marks, mostly in the S range. A few C's in there as well. Her comments from Mrs. C were pretty detailed which I like since we don't have P/T conferences again until March. Keely is improving in her reading and language, but still needs to practice memorizing the sight words she should know. She still sounds out even simple words that should come naturally to her at this point. Her reading level is not 1st grade yet, but I think she's on track and she really shouldn't be reading at a 1st grade level until the end of the year. Her behavior needs some improvement too. She needs to work on being nicer to others and not talking so much. She's definitely a social butterfly and needs to learn the appropriate times to be social. And if she doesn't start acting nicer to her friends she won't have anyone to be socializing with! One more comment that we talked with her about -- she rushes to be first to finish her work. She says she just needs to be first, and I explained why that is not important. Because of her rushing, she gets things wrong and often skips part of the work. I think she feels like she will miss something if she doesn't finish first. So most definitely a work in progress with her, but overall she did well and continues to improve.

So now we are in the midst of the second half of the school year. The kids will be in school for 100 days at the end of next week. That means about 80 to go and this school year will be history. Crazy!