HI to everyone! I can't believe it's been so long since I sat at the computer. If you had a peek into my life right now you would see why I haven't been still for long. Life is wild and crazy right now with brief pit stops every once in a while. As I write you this on Sunday night, I have stayed home all day long (really all weekend long) with a terrible sore throat and sinus junk. Let me be the first to say....what's the DEAL! OK all my teacher friend out there.... I have a question! "How do you keep from getting every sore throat, cough, and cold that comes into your classroom?" I am open to suggestions! I have hand sanitizer that I use on a constant basis and I spray the tables with a germicide spray that the state requires us to use and I'm still getting sick! I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired:)!!!!! Anyway, I'll just keep plugging along and surly I will be able to overcome this junk.
O.K. it's praising time. You know my thoughts and feeling about school right????? Caleb is a challenge but does great and keeps trying and trying. Jared is a breeze but his homework is a pain and is getting longer. Aaron is a mess and likes to "do" his homework his own way! OK so guess what....based on Caleb's 100 on the 6th grade reading TAKS test last year he has been asked to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program! Basically because of his above average performance they would like to test him to see how gifted he is! This means that in January or February of next year he would be eligible to take the ACT or SAT test with college bound kids! Isn't that the funniest thing you have ever heard! He will walk into the testing room with 17 and 18 year old kids and take the test as a 12 year old! His best friend Emily was also invited to take the test. Based on our ACT scores then they will invite you to participate in various camps and stuff offered by Duke. The website said that most kids who take the test should know little to no information asked on the test but they are looking for kids who have not been challenged at this level. It also says that most of the 12 year olds taking the test do as well as the 18 year olds. Anyway, we have left it up to Caleb on whether he would like to take the test and he wants to. I'll let you know as time gets closer how things go. One of the main reasons to let him take it is so that we won't freak out about it when he takes it at 18. He will just think "hey I took this test when I was 12. It's no big deal!"
Now about the little one....Aaron. We went to open house last week and met his teacher. She showed us this first reading TPRI test. On the bottom of the form it says..."Aaron read story #5 at 65 words per minute. He has already passed his goal for reading in the first grade. We will keep pushing him to read at a high level. Wow! What a smart kid!" The little smartie!!!! I knew he was reading well but I didn't really think he would have been that far ahead. He can pick up most any book and start reading it. I asked her to give him a STAR test next week to see what level he is reading at right now. So far he is able to read Jared's 2.1-2.9 books from last year and not have to even sound anything out! His teacher told us a funny story about how she held up a rectangle to the class and asked the class if they could tell her the name of the shape. Aaron's head snapped around and looked at her board above her desk and read to her "Rectangular prism". She said she just started laughing because she never thought about having the answers on the walls before because no one else would be able to read them. He is loving every minute of being able to read Jared's books and she said she would work with him on taking AR tests soon.
Jared got a great report also from his teacher (who was Caleb's 3rd grade teacher also). She said she feels that she is talking to an adult sometimes when she talks to Jared. He raised his hand one day and reported to her that "I don't know if you have been informed by our previous teacher, but that child has had anger management issues in the past". She said I just had to laugh because I felt like I was talking to the school councilor instead of an 8 year old. He is continuing to show no signs of slowing down with above 95 grades in every class. He is however, not impressed with having to do all the extra steps in Math to get ready for the TAKS test. It takes him 15 minutes to do math instead of the usual 5 minutes. Bless his heart.
Anyway, I thought I would take time to tell you how great the kids are doing in school. Even though I HATE the homework and all the drama that comes with it. Caleb is excited to get to play with the band at his first football game this Tuesday night. I don't think they will get out of the stands but they will get to sit up there and play with the 8th graders. He is getting so big! OH and also he went to his first dance Friday night. He had a great time and had a picture made with all his friends. I was OK with him going because they could leave and come back in plus they had a police officer working it. Isn't this world crazy?????!!!!! But, he wouldn't have gone unless they had one on duty! Well, I had better run.
This is getting VERY long. Thanks for hanging in there with me!!!!
Love to all.
JJ
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Cough, cough, hack, hack
OK enough is enough! I have had a cold now for the last week and a half! It started as a head cold and then would fool me into thinking it had gone away. Then the sneaky little virus would turn up again and make me feel bad. Now it has the nerve to show up in my chest and make me cough and hack my way through the day. Today at school I almost lost my voice and sounded like a frog most of the day. I hate this! I even went to BED before the COWBOYS finished playing last night!!!!! You can tell I don't feel well when I miss my Cowboys play. However, they were making me nuts and I kept yelling at the screen so it's probablly better that I went ahead and went to bed. Come on Romo, fall on the ball don't be a hero and give them the touchdown in the end zone!!!!! Anyway, I'm still coughing and hacking now but I do feel better than last night. Yesterday I came home from work and told the boys, "wake me up to when it's time to pick up Caleb. I'm going to lay down!" Thank goodness that I woke up!
The boys are doing great. Aaron caught my virus but he seems to be doing OK. He has a stuffy nose but not a cough yet. Caleb bounced back from a sore throat very quickly. I think it was a virus also because a lot of kids from school had the same thing. They are doing good in school too. Aaron had one green smiley face from school. It means he was warned to stop doing something. I asked him what he was doing and he said goofing off in centers. Jared, of course, is breezing right along and now has a manditory AR weekly points total he has to get. He has to have 3.5 AR points a week to meet his goal. That equals to reading one book and testing on it each week. It shouldn't be too hard for him. I remember Caleb really had to work at meeting the goal. It took him so much longer to read than Jared. Jared's only real problem is that he doesn't really like to read as much as Caleb does. He can take it or leave it. Caleb would read and read and read. Jared reads for about 5 minutes and then wants to know how much time he has left to read. Anway, he is doing great and maybe this will force him to enjoy reading. Caleb is doing pretty well. He has his moments of "scream and pull your hair out" with homework. Some nights it's just overwhelming and other nights it's just dandy. They are cutting the tutor unless he starts to fail. Which, is not surprising I don't guess. Also, he can either be in the dyslexia "dump" class (dumped in front of the DVD player) or not get any help at all. I guess we will pick the no help at all. He could do it after school with the dyslexia foundation here but, I hate to do that to him. It would be working with a lady after school and then coming home to tackle an hour or two of homework. It would mean a lot of work and I don't think he would put enough effort into it to do him any good. Anyway, let me know if anyone has any other ideas! I am sooooo open to suggestions!
My class is still breezing right along. The kids are falling into the routine of things and doing great. It really is amazing how fast the catch on and learn new things. It also surprises me at the different levels of intelligence that I see in my kids. Some are so smart but can't hold a pencil. Some can count to 20 but can't pick out 5 bears from a basket. It's so interesting to see. I can't wait to see where they end up at the end of the year. Most of them are really having a hard time using scissors. OK here is a note to all my friends with small kids............let them cut stuff up! The kids have a blast just cutting paper. My kids sit at the writing station cutting paper up and glueing it down to another cut up piece of paper. That is because no one lets them do it a home! Now......don't just give them the scissors any time they want them with supervision. I won't pay for haircuts they give themselves or their brothers and sisters! But, seriously let them use the scissors ever once in a while. It's 30 mintues or more worth of busy work that they will have a blast doing!
Ok well, the coughing has started and I have to call everyone's spelling words out. We are spelling, advocate, animostiy, lethargic, alibi, cap, lap, flag, piece, leave and comma. I will let you guess which words go with which child. Of course that is just a partial list of the words. So have a G R E A T day. Talk to you soon!
The boys are doing great. Aaron caught my virus but he seems to be doing OK. He has a stuffy nose but not a cough yet. Caleb bounced back from a sore throat very quickly. I think it was a virus also because a lot of kids from school had the same thing. They are doing good in school too. Aaron had one green smiley face from school. It means he was warned to stop doing something. I asked him what he was doing and he said goofing off in centers. Jared, of course, is breezing right along and now has a manditory AR weekly points total he has to get. He has to have 3.5 AR points a week to meet his goal. That equals to reading one book and testing on it each week. It shouldn't be too hard for him. I remember Caleb really had to work at meeting the goal. It took him so much longer to read than Jared. Jared's only real problem is that he doesn't really like to read as much as Caleb does. He can take it or leave it. Caleb would read and read and read. Jared reads for about 5 minutes and then wants to know how much time he has left to read. Anway, he is doing great and maybe this will force him to enjoy reading. Caleb is doing pretty well. He has his moments of "scream and pull your hair out" with homework. Some nights it's just overwhelming and other nights it's just dandy. They are cutting the tutor unless he starts to fail. Which, is not surprising I don't guess. Also, he can either be in the dyslexia "dump" class (dumped in front of the DVD player) or not get any help at all. I guess we will pick the no help at all. He could do it after school with the dyslexia foundation here but, I hate to do that to him. It would be working with a lady after school and then coming home to tackle an hour or two of homework. It would mean a lot of work and I don't think he would put enough effort into it to do him any good. Anyway, let me know if anyone has any other ideas! I am sooooo open to suggestions!
My class is still breezing right along. The kids are falling into the routine of things and doing great. It really is amazing how fast the catch on and learn new things. It also surprises me at the different levels of intelligence that I see in my kids. Some are so smart but can't hold a pencil. Some can count to 20 but can't pick out 5 bears from a basket. It's so interesting to see. I can't wait to see where they end up at the end of the year. Most of them are really having a hard time using scissors. OK here is a note to all my friends with small kids............let them cut stuff up! The kids have a blast just cutting paper. My kids sit at the writing station cutting paper up and glueing it down to another cut up piece of paper. That is because no one lets them do it a home! Now......don't just give them the scissors any time they want them with supervision. I won't pay for haircuts they give themselves or their brothers and sisters! But, seriously let them use the scissors ever once in a while. It's 30 mintues or more worth of busy work that they will have a blast doing!
Ok well, the coughing has started and I have to call everyone's spelling words out. We are spelling, advocate, animostiy, lethargic, alibi, cap, lap, flag, piece, leave and comma. I will let you guess which words go with which child. Of course that is just a partial list of the words. So have a G R E A T day. Talk to you soon!
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Pre K Cult- Part 2
Hi guys! OK, I am fully involved in the Pre K cult from sun up until sundown. If I'm not in the pre-k cult then I am in the 7th grade, the 3rd grade or the 1st grade cult! I have NEVER done so much school work in my life! This includes when I was in school! I am positive I never worked this hard in school! Aaron started his homework routine today. He has to read out loud for 10 minutes, memorize addition facts, and work on spelling words. Jared has the same thing only having to read 20 minutes, do 2math papers and do various weird activites with his spelling words. (I wish they would drop the whole sort, blind sort, look for words in books and all the other junk they have him do and just let him work on them the way he likes too!)Now Caleb of course is a whole other ball game. He has pretty much passed my Math abilities by about 3 years so thank goodness Brian can do Math! That's one great way to pick a husband right????? (Can you do Math because I am good in English, so our kids will be well rounded?) Anyway, Caleb's homework is never ending and also full of weird activities. He has so far created a science poster about a kid who drank acid in class, made a family crest in Literature, and has done several other off the wall "fun" projects that fill his nights completely. Tack saxaphone practice on to his load of fun and his TV time is now about 30 minutes a night with time off only to eat! He is holding up well though and is excited about trying out for the drama club. It meets every Wednesday afternoon and they will work on different plays to perform at school. I asked him to try and find something that he could do that would give him a positive reason and attitude for school. He picked drama. I think he will do great! We will see.
The Pre-K cult I have entered is going very well. My kids are awesome! I have only had one cry for Daddy when being dropped off. She stopped quickly and got involved with the morning work and was fine. I have a couple who test my patience but they are all very good overall. I have prayed over this group all summer long and I know God answers prayer. I seriously under estimated how much time it takes to get things ready however. I have to write their name on every paper in highlighter so they can trace it everyday. This chore alone takes a lot of time. Plus setting up stations and cutting out patterns and the planning for the next week takes forever. I am having a blast though and most everything can be done from my bedroom while I am watching the Cowboys play football! I cut out 13 tepee patterns Sunday while they played and bagged 13 bags of M&M for color graphs. It was a wild old time!!!!!! Well, it's time to get the little munchkins in bed! Hope you all are having a great school year. Drop us a line and let us know how you are!
The Pre-K cult I have entered is going very well. My kids are awesome! I have only had one cry for Daddy when being dropped off. She stopped quickly and got involved with the morning work and was fine. I have a couple who test my patience but they are all very good overall. I have prayed over this group all summer long and I know God answers prayer. I seriously under estimated how much time it takes to get things ready however. I have to write their name on every paper in highlighter so they can trace it everyday. This chore alone takes a lot of time. Plus setting up stations and cutting out patterns and the planning for the next week takes forever. I am having a blast though and most everything can be done from my bedroom while I am watching the Cowboys play football! I cut out 13 tepee patterns Sunday while they played and bagged 13 bags of M&M for color graphs. It was a wild old time!!!!!! Well, it's time to get the little munchkins in bed! Hope you all are having a great school year. Drop us a line and let us know how you are!
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