3 Down, 1 To Go

I really feel like we were just starting the school year. But here we are, three quarters of the way done. Only a couple of months and the kids will be out of school. That is just crazy. This year is flying by. I guess they all do. Report cards came home yesterday and then we went to parent teacher conferences last night. I feel like I always start with Quinn, so I will give the top billing to Keely this time. First though I should say that I am so proud of both of them. They had excellent report cards and reports from their teachers. Both either got better in, or stayed the same in each subject. Not only that, most times it was better.

Keely has made a remarkable improvement from 2nd to 3rd quarter. Her reading went from an S- (below 1st grade) to...C. She is now a fluent 3rd grade reader! She really has worked so hard on her reading and it shows. She's reading chapter books and loves to read. She still loves to make up the words, but she knows how to read too :) Her other subjects were all good grades. Her conduct improved too, and the only negative Mrs. C could find to say was that she rushes to be first in her work, often causing her to get things wrong. For some reason Keely thinks finishing her work first is more important than getting it right. Of course, she doesn't always get it wrong - obviously with her good grades and smarts, she can rush and still do pretty well. We talk to her about not being first, about taking her time...but this is Keely and unless she feels like she wants to make a change, it's not going to happen. So if that's the worst thing we're dealing with, then we are a-ok.

Now, Quinn. He got C's in all of his subjects...except for his conduct. That is an area where he continues to struggle, and sometimes makes some bad choices. Mrs. A is going to ask him to be her 'helper' (kind of like a 'teacher's assistant' as Quinn called it) so that he can be occupied with helping his friends finish their work instead of distracting them from it. He does make smart choices when he finishes his work, like free draw or reading a book from Mrs. A's library. But then he wants to show his friends his cool artwork, or an interesting thing from his book. And that's where the problems begin. We're going to be more consistent with talking to him about making better choices. I am sure he understands, but he gets caught up in having fun. As well he should at 9 years old. But he still has to learn self control. Overall, an excellent report and if some moderate misbehavior is the worst thing we are dealing with, then we are a-ok here too.

Onto the 4th quarter we go. In truth, we are probably more than 3/4 of the way through the year because the next month or so consists of a week off for Spring Break and a super long weekend for Easter. I'm sure it will fly by in the blink of an eye!