It seems like I am always wrong when I guess how my children will be in school. Judging how they behave at home, I would have thought Avery would be the best in school and Addy would be in trouble all the time. It's actually the other way around! Before I say anything though, neither of my children are BAD and neither of them have "problems". Avery just has to try a little harder at some things, whereas Addy just does what she's supposed to and some things come more natural. I'm not sure it will always be that way, but that's the way it's been the last two years.
In Avery's class, the fun time is over. Kindergarten was exciting, magical and fun... 1st grade is WORK. In fact, she will get number grades this year - so 95, 85, etc... no more S, N or U for Reading Language or Math. It stresses me out thinking about it! Avery has no idea what that means. She has homework every night, which right now is pretty easy, but she also has to read every night. She has classwork that has to be completed in class for a completion grade. Avery has had a hard time with it. She is very slow and takes her time with her work. Her teacher last year told me that and so did her teachers at VBS. Apparently being slow is getting her in trouble b/c she isn't finishing things on time. Every Friday her teacher checks their folders and if there is any incomplete work in there, they get a warning in their folder. She got one last week b/c she had two papers in there - one from two weeks before and one fro the week before. I emailed her teacher b/c I wasn't sure what the process was and she informed me that the kids were told several times to have their work done and apparently she sees Avery looking around the room or watching other kids when she should be working. So she isn't 100% focused all the time. I know EXACTLY what she's talking about so I had a long talk with Avery about her class work. Poor baby - she just wants to do all the details, color it all the right colors, make it perfect... and she runs out of time. I had to explain that sometimes it's ok to just get it done as quick as she can b/c the teacher is only seeing that she can finish the work, not that she can do it perfect. Unfortunately Avery is SIX and doesn't understand that concept, nor do I expect her to. Every morning she and I would come up with a game plan on what she needed to do to get everything done. While she should have only had one to complete this week, she had three so she was further behind. Thankfully yesterday she worked really hard to get everything done and finished all her assignments! I was so proud of her! She was proud of herself too.
As far as behavior goes, Avery does really well. They have a color system where everyone starts off on green. If they do anything bad, they move down to yellow, then down to red. If they get on red, they get a mark in their folder. However, they have all day to move up and down so if they are good, they can move up from green to blue which is really good, and if they do something really special, they can move up from blue to purple and choose something from the treasure chest. Avery has been on green or blue everyday except one. She had to move down to yellow at the very end of the day for not sitting cross-legged on the carpet. She did get a warning, but according to Avery, she was "struggling" sitting that way and wanted to sit with her knees in front of her. She had to move down to yellow and since it was right before school let out, she didn't have time to move back up to green. It seemed a little silly to me b/c she wasn't being disruptive, but I didn't tell her I thought that. I told her she needed to listen to her teacher and if she wants her to sit a certain way she needed to respect that and listen to her. That was the first week of school and she's been on blue most of the time since then.
Her teacher did email me one day, replying to a question I asked her and told me what a sweetie Avery was and how she loved having her in class. It really made me feel good. I know I probably set my expectations really high, but Mark and I both know they can be very good little girls when they want to be. They know that conduct marks and warnings in their folders are unacceptable. We know they will have good days and bad days, but they need to make sure to get up every morning and try their best. That's the most important thing. If they still struggle after giving it their best, then we will work with them to help them do better. I am learning that Katy is a very hard but school district. 99% of the kids are above average and do well in school. Avery is getting a very good eduction so I have to remember that when I get frustrated thinking her work load is too much or too hard. We have some really awesome teachers and I am very grateful for that. Avery will appreciate that when she gets older too.
No comments:
Post a Comment