First Report Card

This morning I had a conference with R’s kindergarten teacher.  I didn’t get any big shocks

He’s very bright, scoring way ahead of the game on all his literacy & math skills.  His only “NYP” (not yet proficient) marks came in “penmanship”, “follows classroom & school rules”, and “organizes work space & materials”  In other works, he has sloppy handwriting, doesn’t always remember to raise his hand before speaking, and doesn’t like to put his things away at the end of the day.

Sound like someone else we all know and love?

My child is me.  All over again.  God save us all..hehehe!

I totally burst out laughing at one point, the teacher was describing R’s relationship with his best friend at school, KA.  She called them “Frick and Frack”.  Which is exactly what our teachers at “good old SJS” called M and me.

I’ve gotta say, it is still somewhat surreal to me to be on this end of a parent-teacher conference.  Sometimes I still feel like I’m the one dreading the reports to come.  Comments like “She’s very bright, but just not trying very hard” or “she doesn’t apply herself enough” that would earn me lecture after lecture from my parents.  I sometimes think I spent half my childhood with my parents talking at me.  And I don’t quite know how to bridge the gap from being that kid to being the parent of the bright but impulsive child.  Well, we all do the best we can, right?

Anyhow, I’m really proud of R right now.  And he knows it.  He wants to do well in school…I just need to make sure to keep him feeling that way.

More ridiculousness

Yesterday, I picked R up after school and he’s bouncing off the walls excited about a letter that’s in his folder.  He, and one other child in his class were chosen to perform in an upcoming concert but he needs the permission slip returned.

We get home, I dig the note out of his folder, and find this bit of loveliness:

Dear Parents of R:

Your child has been randomly selected to perform with a group of children from the school in a Gala sponsored by the School District Educational and Cultural Foundation on date & time at place.  It is a very special honor to be a part of such a wonderful event that raises money through ticket sales to fund many educational and cultural programs in the schools of our district. (and this is the same district where my kindergartner does NOT get art, music, phys ed, or recess.)

It is CRUCIAL that you return the permission slip below by Monday, November 3 to your child’s teacher. Tickets for this Gala go on sale November 24. I cannot impress enough that the tickets go very, very quickly.  I highly recommend that you purchase your tickets as soon as possible.  Please call the ticket office after 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for more information. Blah blah blah, rehearsal details, blah blah.

~~~~~~~

Anyone see what is missing here?

Like, how much tickets to this Fundraising Gala cost?  We’re supposed to sign our kids up for this great honor (which they’ve been told about and gotten worked up about already), without knowing how much we need to pay to see them participate!!!

So, I waited until 1:30 and called the number given in the letter to call for more information.  The conversation went as follows:

Me: Hi, I’m calling because we got a letter inviting my son to participate in the fundraising gala, and I wanted to know how much the tickets for the event were going to cost?

person at ticket office: Those tickets don’t even go on sale until November 24.

Me: Yes, I see that from the letter.  But it doesn’t say how much they are going to cost.

ticket person: We don’t even HAVE those tickets yet.  We don’t know what they will cost.

Me: I’d just like to know if we are going to be able to attend to see our son perform.

TP: (heaving a big sigh) Last year the tickets ranged from $15 to $65.  I can’t imagine this year will be much different. $20 for the side balcony seats, maybe.

~~~

Well, okay then.  Thanks for nothing.  Of course we are letting him do it, because he was just thrilled to be asked.  We mentioned it to mom last night, and she wants us to call and say we’ll let him perform IF we get free tickets.  I can’t do that.  The only thing that would get us is a reputation for being troublemakers & they would likely not ask R to be in anything again.

Another step

Today was a big day for R…his first public performance!

He joined the children’s choir at church, and let me say, all the hassle of getting him to weekly rehearsals was so worth it to see him up there today.  He told me again and again after rehearsals that Mrs. B said he has the most gusto when he sings…and she was totally correct.  We could hear him clearly!  But I was impressed with my scatterbrained son (comes of having a scatterbrained mother ) remembering and singing all the words, focusing and not playing around up there, and I was so happy to see my often shy son getting right up there and singing his heart out.  He wouldn’t sing the song to me before today, and I will admit I was wondering how much attention he was paying in rehearsals.  His stories have been of how M giggles at everything, and the other kids do this and the other kids do that, but the only other thing he would tell me was about Mrs. B’s gusto comment.  I love to sing, but I don’t do it when anyone else can hear, because I do it very badly.  It thrills the hell out of me that my children love to sing, and have the opportunity to actually learn to do so!!

We had a moment of sheer parenting panic today.  The childrens sermon was about parties.  The parable of the king who throws a party for his son, and none of the rich so-and-so’s he invited show up, so he sends out his servants to fill the party room with whoever they can find…that’s the story they were talking about today.  Which would be fine except for one small snag on our end.  You see, we went to J’s son W’s first birthday party yesterday…which they had at Hooters.  We went, the food was good, it was fun…but I REALLY didn’t want the boys to mention this particular birthday party right up there at the front of church today. (and they didn’t! Woohoo! and whew!!).

After church, we went to lunch with G & GL, Mom & J, and T.  It was great to see everyone, and tomorrow I’m getting a knitting lesson from G while the boys are at school.  Huzzah!!!

N has a sty on his eye, and is down right now with a migraine (that we think is partially from the sty).  I hope it gets better quickly!!

Oh, and I got the results back from R’s first round of standardized tests at school.  He scored 55/56 correct on the math test, and the reading portion was a baseline, they’ll measure the results of the next test against how he did in those.  I’ve also done my first shift as a children’s librarian, volunteering at the Kindergarten library.  It was fun, and R is so excited that I’m “working” at his school.

I want to go check in on the hubby, so I’ll leave off here with a pic of R in his choir robe:

K’s first day, and other school tales/woes

K’s first day of school was Tuesday, and as expected, he loves it.  It was a rainy day, and he doesn’t like to stay still much so I only snapped a couple of quick pictures.

Most of the boys from his class last year are in his class again this year, and he’s made some new friends already, including one who shares the same birthday!  How fun is that?

I fully expect K to have a terrific, fun year.  We’re well acquainted with his teacher, as she was R’s teacher last year, and we love her.

I’m still not so sure about R.  He was crying this morning, not wanting to go to school.  In three years of preschool he never cried like that.  They don’t have any fun, he didn’t even get to finish his snack yesterday, and he doesn’t get to play at all are some of the complaints he had.  I try to make sure he gets some good playtime in after school, and I know it’s too early in the year and they don’t have routines down yet, but I’m still pretty unhappy with the current setup.

And part of me thinks…if the bus showed up on time in the morning, instead of always running 10-15 minutes late, then maybe they could have time for recess?  But that’s probably wrong.

When he got off the bus after school, the AM angst was forgotten and he said he had a good day.  Maybe this transition from preschool to Kindergarten is harder on me than I’m admitting to myself.  Maybe I’m trying to baby him too much & protect him from the hardships and realities of life for too long.  Or maybe the system just sucks and we should go back to letting kids be kids.

I came across this article the other day.  Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks things aren’t right.  I haven’t seen any signs of emotional trouble in my boys (yet), but I am worried that they are going to be pushed too hard.  And I really disagree with “teaching to the test.”  I had all kinds of tricks in school for doing well on tests (not cheating either), but none of them helped me actually learn the information in such a way that I could retain it for future use. Sure I could cram the morning of a history test, and parrot back the relevant dates & names for the day of the test, and maybe a day or two after, but I don’t remember any of it now.  It took me awhile the other day to solve a crossword puzzle clue “The fifth president” and I had four of the letters filled out from other clues before I did get it. (Monroe)

I’m trying very, very hard to be upbeat and positive about school for R (and K too).  It’s hard because my own feelings are not very positive right now, but I don’t think he knows it.  I’m doing what I can, in small ways.  I signed up to be a classroom volunteer, a library volunteer (and thankfully they do still have a library, at least), and for the home school association.  I’m trying to keep an open mind about all this.  Really I am.