The first quarter of school is in the books. We haven't received report cards yet, but we did have parent teacher conferences last week.
Keely is doing very well in her class. Her teacher couldn't find anything bad to report on her academics, she is at or above grade level and often ahead of her classmates in most of her subjects. She will help other students with their work when she finishes early. I try not to compare, but it was very similar to the report we received when Quinn was in 3rd grade. Her writing is something she can work on more, to be more expressive. As her teacher said, Keely loves everything when she writes...so he is working to get her to be more descriptive and specific in her writing. The only other thing she needs to work on is her self-control. She tends to get caught up in silliness and antics with other students and that can be distractive to the class. She also always wants to be called on when raising her hand...and is often expressive (not in a productive way) when not called upon. This was not a surprise to us, and is consistent with what we have been stressing at home...an inside voice for things that not everyone needs to hear. We discussed her academics as an indicator to being a candidate for the AAP program, and at this rate she is a possibility for 4th grade. However, with 22 kids in that advanced class and only 15 in her class, I'm happy where she is and feel that she's getting the best education right now. We had her re-tested a couple of weeks ago, and will see how her test scores come in this year before deciding to put together a packet for acceptance into the AAP program in February. Her motivation is purely social, as that's where all of her best friends are but we feel that not being in class with her best friends is most likely helping her academics and concentration...and we would like the recommendation to be from her teacher and her test scores. I'd say she's on track, but we will wait a few months to decide.
Quinn is also doing very well in class. It was a bit funny at first when the teacher said she had to tell us something that she was telling each parent - please have your child wear deodorant every day! The onset of puberty makes for an unpleasant smell in her classroom...we'd asked Quinn to start wearing deodorant earlier this year (March or so) but I don't think he's consistent. You can just imagine the combined smell of 15 boys not wearing deodorant! Hygiene aside...he is doing well in class. His only problem is being concerned more with his friends and being social than his work sometimes. It's not a problem...yet but could become one if he keeps letting the social aspect of school distract him. This is very important as we inch closer to middle school. The demands next year will be much higher, and time management is critical. It's important to set good habits now. That said, Quinn is mostly on the straight and narrow. He is most likely on track to take the 6th grade math SOL (state test) and we talked a good deal about their current writing project, NaNoRiMo. I'll likely dedicate an entire post about that project at the end of this month, but basically each child is writing a novel in one month's time. Quinn has set a goal of 17,000 words, and as of right now has almost 6,000 written. They are typing it too, so not only is it good for their writing skills but their typing skills as well. Most of their writing is prescribed this year since they are preparing for a state test, so their teacher wanted to give them something they could control and decide. It's been quite energizing for Quinn and we have not had to nag him at all...he writes every day in school for 45 minutes, and also at home each day - even on weekends.
As usual, one quarter of a school year has come and gone pretty quickly - but it looks and sounds like 5th and 3rd grades are going well for the kids. They have settled nicely into Beech Tree, and we feel fortunate to have a great school with great teachers.
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