Kindergarten

My husband sent his first teacher email.  I told him, "You know there's a problem when Daddy gets involved!"  Daddy is always involved but usually I'm the only one getting fired up.  Matthew has to keep a weekly Reading Journal, which we objected to at first because we like to do things the way we do things.  We don't like mandates.  But with some motivation from Nana, we decided to make an effort.  This past week, Matt and Nana read lots of books with Matthew.  So we were surprised when the Reading Journal came home and there was a post it note inside that read, "Sorry.  Matthew did not take his Reading Journal out of his folder."  What!?  I asked Matthew why and he said that the teacher takes the Journal out.  And obviously she did to place the sticky note.  Then I asked about the volunteers who come in to log his reading. "They didn't call my name.  Maybe they did when I was getting on the bus."  Poor baby.  My boy is not the most compliant child BUT he does understand social norms and knows how to behave in a school.  There is no way that Matthew purposefully did not take out his Reading Journal.  Why?  Because he has pride in what he does and what his family does with him.  I'm sure I sound like an idiot.  I have said it before, that I over react, that I am a little dramatic, but seriously... Sorry we left your child out and didn't acknowledge that he and his Daddy and his Nana worked very hard with him, but it's HIS fault.  Not mine.  Because he is 5 and I am 55.  And I am always right because I am the teacher.

Not on our watch.  She also sent a paper home with "x's" and a "-2" with a note that said to correct the work with a parent.  Matthew was supposed to color squares or circles according to the number written below each exercise.  For one of the numbers, the teacher wrote that there were too many shapes colored in and that you should always count twice. For the other number, she wrote that there were too few shapes shaded.  I applied my own teacher eye to the exercise and counted the number of shapes Matthew had shaded in for each number.  And guess what?  Matthew shaded nine shapes for
the number 6 and six shapes for the number 9.  She is the teacher.  Why did she not notice that he had confused his 6 and his 9?  Instead, she thinks he has no number sense and needs to send his work home to correct with his parents so they are aware of the "problem".  

I know what the problem is and so does Matt, which is why he emailed the teacher to ask her to clarify why Matthew did not take out his Reading Journal... Waiting for her reply...

The reply... Matthew put his folder in "the box" instead of "the green bin" so his Reading Journal was not discovered until after the volunteers had gone.  As Matthew told us, they didn't call his name.  He is a red folder.  No folder, no Matthew.

Happy Birthday

The posts are few and far between.  Life moves so quickly.  Jacob has turned four years old.  His face and body have certainly changed but he still looks like a baby.  He is still naive about the word around him, very innocent.  Matthew has been grown since he was three in terms of the complexity of his thoughts and emotions.

Jacob has been sleeping in his own bunk bed since the end of the summer after years of sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed.  I thought this was a necessary move developmentally and space wise since there will be a new baby in our bed in just a few months.  But we still let him lay with us for a little while before going to bed.  He is irresistible.  I say I love you Jacob and he says love you too.  And he does.

Jacob's IEP review went well.  I can tell that his teacher and therapists know him well, they are seeing what he can do and what he might do.  His speech has really exploded.  I only have difficulty understanding when he uses new words that begin with a "c" as far as I've noticed.