Wednesday, I had a meeting with the YW's presidency to talk about the new changes to the youth program. That means that I left Jer making dinner, Evelyn doing homework and a reminder that Evelyn had to be dressed for dance before 6. Jer reminded her to get ready and she was very upset that her hair was not in a bun. Their dress code is a black leotard with no skirt, pink tights and pink shoes with their hair in a tight bun. I've seen girls forget their shoes, wear white tights, and especially I have seen girls with pony tails and braids. I think they encourage it, but they don't kick you out if it doesn't happen that day. Evelyn took it to heart though and will only let me do buns in her hair. Jer does a decent pony tail, but I don't think he's ever tried a bun before. He tried and did a fairly good job, but made the mistake of telling Evelyn that he didn't know how. Evelyn stormed off to sulk in the corner and muttered, "Really doesn't know how to do a bun! And Mommy said that Daddy was so smart!" (This is right after her fighting with Dad about waiting for me to help her with her homework instead of getting it done while I was gone. I told her on my way out the door.... "Let Daddy help you. Daddy is smart too.")
Ada, LOVES the Wings of Fire series. She has very religiously read, re-read, purchased and shared all of her books with all her friends at school. I read the first one and it was cute and clean. I've just let her go at it. The 13th book came out just before her birthday and I told my mom that Ada would love it for her birthday. And she did! She squirreled herself away and read for a couple days. I asked her about it and she was kind of non-committal. After thinking about it for a day, she came to me and told me that she was upset that the author had included a transgender dragon in this latest book. Why? No reason, just because it's the political climate right now. Was it a big plot point kind of like Michael Vey's tics? No. Could it have easily have been left out like how JK Rowling left out that she thought of Dumbledore as gay? Yes.
I get that people want children to be accepting. I will tell you now that my kids already are, my kids have friends of different races, countries, values, religions, family status. I have a YW that is non-binary and they can talk easily to that YW without hate or discrimination. Many of my kids' friends have high functioning autism or ADD. Ada has a friend at school in a wheelchair and another that is Downs. I kind of think that they are accepting enough without people trying to add things to their children's books. So sad. I was very proud that she came to me on her own to talk when she was uncomfortable. I'm very proud of the young woman she is growing into.
Jer and I have started playing Lord of the Rings Online with our three oldest kids. They are only allowed to play with us and we all do the same quests. The kids are so funny. They were jumping down cliffs because they thought it was funny to watch their character limping afterwards. Jer said that we needed to name our group something about always having broken legs. The kids really liked that.... and they love giggling when dad plays something up a lot.... like summoning his pet bear while being silly about it. They all get a kick out if it.
We had parent teacher conference this week. It was a kind of funny one. It's the first one that Jer has gone to instead of me.
Ada is doing well. Her teacher is so sweet and very science centered. Ada loves her and was glad she got her for the second year in a row.
Sam is doing well. His teacher is having a hard time with this particular group respecting those in charge. Sam and 4 others have been set in a self-working group while the teacher tries to correct poor behavior in the rest of the class. Sam loves it. He and his friends sit in the hall with their laptops, finish their work quickly and get to read the rest of class. The front office lady took a picture of their group. Sam had taken a white board and written on it, "No, we're not in trouble." to put next to them while they worked. I got a kick out of that.
Evelyn, like Ada and Sam, scored really well in the state testing. Her reading comprehension and math are off the charts for a 3rd grader, but she's really struggling getting her work turned in. Her teacher agreed with me that Evelyn understands all the content and lessons well. But I asked her and "Math is boring" and spelling is in cursive so it's "too confusing". So.... instead of bringing all her homework home, she hides it until her teacher tells me. Then she has to do 4 hours of math homework in a day to catch up. Yup. I had thought of talking to her teachers and trying to get her assignments reduced as long as she was testing well, but I'm not convinced yet. I want her to learn cursive and that's one that comes with practice. The reading homework and the math homework I will agree are alot. The other kids finish theirs while waiting for carpool. Evelyn doesn't want to. The one thing that I do not do that her teacher is asking for is one of the reading assignments. Not only does she have spelling and 1-2 worksheets that are brought home, but she's required to read out loud for 20 mins a day. If she were struggling with her reading I would understand that. She's reading on a 5th grade level so I don't make her do that. I've tried to work with her reading teacher before, but he's been fairly impatient with me. Her math teacher seems easier to work with, but we didn't find out until yesterday that she was missing 15 assignments.... so easier to work with in person but not as communicative as the reading teacher. I want Evelyn to become self-regulating before she goes off to jr high, so I don't want to get rid of all homework, but I don't like her feeling overwhelmed either. We'll keep working together at home and if nothing works, I'll ask the teacher to give her less work.
My favorite was Seth's teacher. I warned her ahead that he's a handful. She said she could handle it. I've checked in with her several times and she always says that she's fine. Every time I pick him up from school he takes time to pick up and put away his stuff from his desk. He told me once that, "My teacher told me that I have to leave my wiggles outside. I can't bring them back in with me." I got a giggle out of that one because he's very wiggly at home too. What she didn't tell me is that she had to put him at the front of the room next to the smart board. (Seth says that we need to get one of those.... sure kid, I've got $5000, let's go pick one up.) He's at a 4 person desk all by himself because he keeps distracting his neighbors. That's new. If I'd known that, I would have started spot checking him through the day to make sure he's listening to her. She said that he's doing well enough to sit with neighbors again, so we'll see what happens. She also said that he needs to practice his letters at home.... but I see him reading and writing letters already, so I don't know what he's doing for her. We'll keep going. He loves school, but hates getting dressed for school. If he could go in his pjs, he'd love everything about it.
