Rainy Night at West Park

It really was beautiful out!

She collected a leaf for the leaf Thumbellina uses to keep the rain off herself, grass for the grass used to make a hammock to sleep in, flower petals for Thumbellina's sheets, and straw for the straw Thumbellina weaves together to make a blanket for the swallow.

School Project

Leanna had to choose a fairy tale, write a book report, decorate a paper bag with pictures from the fairy tale, and put 3 objects from the fairy tale in the bag. Then she presents the story to the class.

She chose Thumbellina. So last night we went object collecting at West Park. It was beautiful out.

If I had 100 by Leanna

This came home last Friday, I thought it was pretty adorable. I guess I'll translate, as her spelling's pretty bad (I have no clue where that comes from!!)

My translation, with correct spelling (I think!)It's a fill in the blank book so I used...... to show where her words are:

I wish I had 100......yummy strawberries

I would never want 100......stinkbugs and ants.

If I had 100 dollars, I would ......go to New York City and buy a doll and (something, I can't read what she wrote.)

Having 100......cats......would really be a problem. Then she added, My grammy's allergic to cats.

I could eat 100.....ice creams, more than that.

I'd like to give......My Mom......100..... dollars for Christmas.

I think in 100 years.....I will be a rock star.

(And I assure you she meant it to say rock star, not coke star like it looks like!)

School problems?

Can anyone think of a reason my daughter is throwing up at school but has no fever or other signs of any problems. They send her to the nurse who says she has no fever and sends her back to the classroom. This has happened twice (that I know about) this week. She seems perfectly normal at home, I wouldn't even know about it except that she mentioned it in passing last night, and on Tuesday I attended a reading program thing at her school and when I signed in at the office, the nurse's assistant happened to be there and mentioned that she'd thrown up that day. Otherwise I wouldn't have known.
I'm beginning to wonder if it's nerves-a reaction to the cutthroat second-grade environment in her class. No, I'm actually serious. It's like a mini-version of mean girls. Some of the stuff she tells me about just breaks my heart. Last night she said, "Kevin is nice to "A." and she's nice to him. But I'm nice to "A." and she's not nice to me. Why?"

oh yeah....

While I remember, at Winter Craft night Leanna's teacher stopped me to tell me that Leanna's doing really well and has moved up to reading level 14, the highest in her class. I'm very proud of her!

Parent teacher conference & report card

I don't want to get into the habbit of giving very detailed report card reviews here because that could get embarrassing for them in the future if one child doesn't do as well as the others, or if someone has a bad rating period, etc......but I am still proud and want to talk about my child. So I decided I'll just give an overview.
Leanna's teacher was pleased overall. She's just moved up again to the 12th level in reading. She's doing fantastic in reading and the teacher says she's a good writer. She's doing well in social studies and science. Her behavior's fine. But she didn't do as well in math as she should have, the teacher was puzzled as to why Leanna did not do well on the math test. As was I. She appeared to know the material at home. She said the only reason she could think of was that Leanna wasn't paying attention? So she got marked progressing below grade level on two of the nine categories in math. The only other two was in the category of grammer, spelling, and punctuation(those three are all one category). Her handwritting and spelling leave something to be desired.......we decided that if Leanna does her homework sloppy I will include a note that day asking for another copy of that homework and she will send it home. So she will have two papers to do the next day. The teacher also suggested having Leanna do it during recess, but I said no, I'd prefer she have recess. She needs a break. And the teacher gave me an extra math book to let Leanna practice with at home.
At my suggestion we discussed the social aspects of school. The teacher wasn't aware of any real problems there but thought if Leanna was having any problems, it might be because she's been making faces at other kids. Yeah, you can't make this stuff up. Kids have a way of finding things you never thought of to put you through. But I'm confident we'll work thruogh it, I talked more in depth with the poor teacher about it (I was prohably her longest conference), and when I got home Leanna and I made a plan up for how to do better in her problem areas. Though I'm focusing on the areas where she needs work, Leanna is doing very well overall and I'm very proud of my daughter!

School Play-Thanksgiving Edition

On Friday Leanna's class put on two plays. The class was split in half and each did one play. Parents, the first graders, and some extra teachers & the principal came to watch.

It was tough to get good pictures, partially because of our location, and party because I was trying to keep the three boys quiet. And Jacob wanted to grab the camera.

When all the kids lined up at the end, so the principal could take a picture, one father jokingly said, "Everybody say, reservation!" The kids heard him and happily complied. Adults who got the joke all laughed and the Dad buried his head in his hands. He hadn't expected them to do it.

Being Thankful for school

School Stuff

Right now Leanna is very interested in blue whales. They are learning about the ocean in school. Leanna seems to be having a much better year this year in school. I actually credit the summer reading program at the library with much of it. It really helped her to focus more. Though she still has problems with rushing through her reading and then not remembering what she read in class. But at home she has begun to read entirely on her own, meaning no prompting from me, it's entirely her choice. So thanks to american girl books, she's begun to pick up a little bit of history. Thanks to Justin's dinosaurs, she's learned a little science, etc. etc. I also think it really helped that she saw me reading too. After she saw me devouring a book (the last few Harry Potter's) she started reading the same way also. Not wanting to put her book down, reading at all times of day, being completely immersed in what she is reading. I'd sort of gotten out of the habbit of reading just for pleasure. Most of my reading has been done on the internet since I had the three boys practically back to back. I just didn't have the time for longer stuff.
I've seen several recent studies that show that your brain gets used to getting information the way it is on the net-in short bursts. It makes it difficult for you to do longer reading,(like a book) your attention span adjusts. You can fix this, it just takes a bit of time until your brain readjusts. I know this is true for me personally. It's something to watch out for with the kids, since they are growing up in a world where the internet is taken for granted as a source of entertainment and info. So hopefully all that reading she did this summer expanded her world a bit, kept her brain active over the summer and helped her attention span also!