Half Way There

I can not believe the school year is already half way over. Seriously, it is going to be summer in a blink of the eye. I have 2 issues with that. A) I loathe the summer time here in Alabama. 90+ degree heat, 100+ degree heat indexes, 100% humidity…. Blah I HATE it. The only thing I like about summer time is the easy goingness (is that really a word?) of it. There no school to worry about, no homework to have to go over, no lunches or snacks to have to make and no dress codes to have to worry about. Even though I still have to go to work at the same time and get home at the same, it’s still much more relaxed. Other then that, I could do just fine without a day of summer. I have to admit though that I am looking forward to the start of softball season coming up here soon!

So, back to the ½ way mark. Cameron is still pushing right along. She was the first in her class to master her math facts. This is a goal in all of the grades. The children take timed math tests on the computer when they get time in class and they need to complete a certain amount of levels of 100 math problems in 2 minutes. The kids have the whole year to work on them at their own pace. Last year it took her until nearly the end of the year to master the addition facts. This year she master addition and subtraction before the first half of the year was up. Now she will move on to multiplication facts. I certainly don’t expect her to master these by the end of the year, but she will have a good head start on it when she will have to do them in 3^rd grade. Unfortunately I can not say she is doing as well with the class lessons on their money unit. My heart dropped when she brought home her progress report (they get them every 2 weeks) and the 90/A she had on her report card just 4 weeks ago was now a 69/D. O.M.G!!! I thought for sure it was a type. Sadly it was not an error. I contacted the teacher and she explained that the bulk of the grade came from 2 tests that she didn't do well on. The teacher assured me that there was no reason to be overly concerned. She was having trouble with the money unit and that is was more of a cognitive issue (with her being a very young 2nd grader) and not so much of a learning problem. She suggested we just work with her on money as much as we can so that she can better prepared when it comes up in 3rd grade. She said her grade is already up to a 75 because of a test they just took and she is pretty confident that she will have a high B if not an A when the next marking period ends. Whew!! Was I glad to hear that. So money, money, money!! We will work more on that.

She is still reading a bit ahead of the standard, but I have noticed that her comprehension hasn't been all that great. She can read all the words and do so very smoothly, but answering questions about what she just read isn't always easy. I have noticed that the subject matter of the book plays a big part as well as if she is reading or if someone is reading to her. It is much easier for her to answer questions about a story she has read to herself than it is for her to hear the story read by someone else. I remember struggling with this issue in school myself. She is maintaining a high B in reading so I am not going to panic yet. Her teacher had suggested us reading the chapter books to her and having her summarize the story after each chapter. She just got a whole stack of Jigsaw Jones Mystery chapter books for Christmas so there is plenty to read.

The class is attending music now and she is really enjoying that, She did music last year, but I think she is learning a lot more about actual music this year. Last year I think it was just a lot of singing songs and playing little instruments. She gets excited about her music class and I like seeing that interest.

We really lucked out with another great teacher this year! And I have learned that that is so important in so many ways. I couldn't be more pleased.