Parent Teacher Conference for Lyndall

Well yesterday was the parent teacher conference. Stukey does it a little different, its more like a student parent conference. This way the kids know where they are in terms of finishing the grade and what goals they need to work towards to do so. It also opens up great communication for the student and parent. The teacher is there in the class to help and explain things if need be.

Reading:
At the beginning of school he was at DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) level 40 (fourth grade 1st month) now he is at 50 (fifth to sixth grade). His Lexile level was 637 at the beginning and is now 700. This is a test they do on every book. It goes up the harder the book is, its more of a comprehension test. Fourth grade lexile for on or above target is 650 and fifth grade is 800. So I would think that by the end of third grade he should be at 800. The Stukey library only goes up to 1000.

Writing:
At the beginning of the year the teacher said that his writing was end of third grade writing. She said in order for him to be in Fourth grade writing he really had to improve that there was a huge difference from third to fourth grade. Well now all but one part of his writing is at the end of third grade. She feels that he will surpass this and go into the fourth grade level of writing early closer to the end of the year. He just needs to work on word choice.

Math:
He does wonderful in math and is at the top of the class, he just rushes through the math test and gets them wrong. His teacher says he has a hard time explaining how he gets the answer, he just likes to blurt out the answer that he knows in his head. This is also where he goes wrong on the test he doesn't know how to explain how he got the answer, he tells me "I just know it I'm smart like that."

Science:
He does even better in science. He is always asking about different science topics and checking out books from the library on science.

Homework:
All turned in and correct.

School work:
All turned in and correct.

Missing assignments:
None! So he gets to go on the field trip to the Denver Mint. Only half of the kids in his class gets to go. If a student is missing more than 5 assignments then they don't get to go.

Over all we now know where to help Lyndall improve on at home, to get him a great boost into the fourth grade levels. I think that the conference went well except I was disappointed to see that Lyndall did not have a desk, again. He was stuck at the back counter for talking and disrupting class, again. I still think that they just need to give him more challenging work to keep himself busy.

Refocus Sheet

On Wednesday Lyndall had brought home yet another wonderful refocus sheet. Actually the sheets are not wonderful, they are a pain in the butt and make my kid look like he's the worst student in the school. It seems he brings these home at least 2 times a month. Its a sheet that he has to fill out telling what he had done wrong that day and both the teacher and the parent have to sign it.

Usually the problem is his talking in class. The problem is not his, as much as it is a problem for other students. Lyndall has all work turned in and is not missing any work, he finishes his work easy and fast, then he talks to everyone else who is still struggling to finish whatever the assignment is. This has been going on since last year. The teacher says when he is done with his work he knows that he is to find something to do, such as read or catch up on missing work.

The problem again is not the missing work so he's to read. Read, read, read. Read after math, read after science, read after every subject and then come home and read for homework! Yes he like to read, but he gets tired of doing it that much. So here's the refocus sheet.

This Wednesday was different and stupid. He has had csap testing all week. They take away the extra recess to do extra testing. Then they send him to art. He got in trouble for throwing a piece of lead about 1/2 a centimeter long! Oh No! Why don't we just give him some sort of detention for doing such a terrible thing! I'm not saying that he should be throwing things, but when he gets to many of these refocus sheets he has to spend a day in "in school suspension", he's done it before. Why can't a teacher simply talk to him after class and say "hey lets not do that anymore OK?"

The school says that they try to work with him, they tell him to self reward. Does anybody really know what that means for an 8 year old? I don't think that most young adults know what that means. So I have been the one to reward him at home with good behavior that happens at school. I decided to that instead of punishing him at home with bad behavior at school, that's what I was doing and I hated it because he's good at home why punish him at home for school behavior?

For his reward system I made a weekly report card for him to take to school to have the teacher sign everyday for either poor, so-so, or good behavior. When he gets a good mark he gets to put a sticker on his chart and after 5 days worth of good he gets a prize, which we have made up with him., this way he looks foreward to his prize. Yes some of the prizes are little much, but believe me its worth him behaving for. We started this on January 14th and we have gotten 18 days of good. Its a start. I keep an on going goal sheet rather than making him be good all week for a prize because sometimes that is just impossible and I don;t want him to be discouraged. If hes not good one day he knows that his prize is delayed by one day. I do not give him anything for so-so day I just tell him to work a little harder. He knows what it is to behave he just has a hard time doing it when he's bored out of his mind.

Family Night

Every Monday is family night for us. Tonight we decided to make some Valentines for some of our loved ones. We used those beads that you make a design with and then iron together. The kids always have fun making things with the beads, and they can't wait till Valentines day to give them away.

Swimming Lessons

Well today was the last day of this session of swim lessons. Lyndall will now be going into level 3 and Sable is going into level 1. They just love having swim lessons and meeting new friends there.
On the last day they always pull out either this water snake or a big blue whale to play on. The kids always look forward to the last day. They still put the kids in life jackets, being that there are a lot of kids playing and jumping off of these huge blow up things, they have life guards of course but want to reduce injury and drowning.

This is Sable jumping into the water and just overall having a great time.

She's the one with the neon pink goggles.

Lyndall by the pool side.

Sable in Angelfish with her new friends.

P.S. Sable lost her two front teeth!