Humming Along in Second Grade

DuckyBoy is doing so well in school this year that I hardly have anything to write here. An update on a variety of areas, in no particular order although I will start with his strongest suit:

Reading: Way above grade level. He's at level N, when the highest they expect at the end of 2nd grade is M. N books are hard for him, though. He's fallen in love with Judy Moody, who's at M level. So that's awesome. I think he also sneaks in some Jigsaw Jones action and doesn't tell me.

Reading Comprehension: A little lower than it oughta be. Especially when it's a topic that doesn't hold his interest. I'm wondering if he doesn't need some support in this area -- am hoping his teachers have or will notice a trend in when he's more or less able to understand, especially things he hears versus reads. (Both are low.)

Consequence reports: He had one Friday, but prior to that it's been weeks. Friday's issue was either a "testing the lmits" issue or a case of distracted listening. Either way I'm glad they follow through and I'm also glad it wasn't a seriously awful offense. (No one got hit or anything, unlike the reports earlier in the year.)

Supergirl: Came home for good! There was a minor snafu the day we got her, the science teacher thought he was good to go, but in the afternoon he'd done something to lose his final sticker. But I'm there Friday, it was easy, we'd already told him, so she came home with the stipulation she wouldn't move into his room until he got that last sticker. I told the teachers to hold out for BOTH Monday stickers instead of just one -- and he did it.

Social studies: They've started social studies this eyar, and he's enjoying it. They're learning about New York City, so that's a good first topic for him. He wants to take my giant photo of the Brooklyn Bridge in tomorrow. I haven't decided yet what to do.

Social skills: He helps at home sometimes without even being asked! Like, he'll hold a door or offer tot ake out the recycling. Other times, when he is asked to help, he still balks, but sometimes asks, "Is that a rhetorical question?" so he knows he has to do it. He's better at greeting people and saying goodbye, but it's still done grudgingly at times.

Math: This one's tough for him. Times (other than even o'clocks), coins, adding and subtracting bigger numbers like 7,8,9,12, are hard. He doesn't seem to know how to figure it out so he tries to guess. I mean, really guess, something totally random. He's better at the story problems ("Singapore math," it's called), and improving with counting by 2s, 10s, telling time on the half-hour, and making change. This is one of the areas where I feel like, "He's only 7." But I do want him to stay with his grade.

Typing/computers: Better this year. Don't know why. Maybe it's less mind-numbing (for him) typing fjfjf jfjfj, and more words to keep his brain engaged, so he can stay on task longer. The other day he said they practiced oputting in and taking out flash drives, which he loved. "It was even better than KidPix!" he said. KidPix is the drawing program that he loved in K and was heartbroken to find out was not the computer class curriculum in 1st grade. This year, it's the reward for getting their main work done. (I think it was last year, too, but he almost never got done in time.)

Music: Still a challenge. Honestly, he doesn't like any voice out of tune, even mine, which, sadly, usually is off-key. Fortunately the cluster teacher knows him, and sympathizes. The winter concert is coming up soon; I've already laid the groundwork that (a) he has to participate since it's during the school day and (b) he is already learning the songs (for some reason he got anxious that he wasn't being taught the songs).

Writing: I don't know what changed, but what a difference. He draws and writes stories in nothing flat. Capitalization? Not so great. It'll get there. Ability to write readable letters and not-so-clipped stories, improved tremendously.

Homework: Since he does it at Afterschool almost every day, it's practically become a no-brainer at home. I hear he's the first one done (because when you're done you can play!), whereas at home, it was torture.

Friends & Girlfriends: He's a bit obsessed with the same classmate he was last year, the one everyone else loves as well. When she was challenged by the teachers one day last week to play with girls, not boys, at recess, he apparently freaked out ... then got it together and found other peopel to play with. It's sucha love/hate thing: She's good at everything, so that bugs him, but it'd also attractive that she's smart. She's also as strong-willed as he is in terms of wanting to play what she wants to play the way she wants to play it (just like he is), so they clash on that front from time to time. On recent playdates it was painful to have him run to me "She won't let me do this!" "She won't play my game!" -- he's so upset he can't think of any way to compromise.

Same "girlfriend" as last year too. She's much more easygoing and great for him. She's in Afterschool, which is why he likes being there so much. It's like they get a playdate every day. One day he told me another girl is his "backup friend" when these 2 aren't around. I'm sure he means it positively, that she is another friend of his; I do try to help him avoid sharing his bluntly honest language with the people involved!

Some of the stories we tell actually involve boys from his class now and then, which is a huge change. Just this weekend our Build-a-Bears were stand-ins for several classmates, and he named enough boys to cover all the bears.

We don't do a lot of playdates; I'm just bad at setting them up. One of his classmates lives close enough that we and his parents get movitated more often to set things up. So I suppose we talk about him more often than about other kids. Which made DB indignantly inform us we make it seem like the 2 boys are "best friends," and "why do we keep saying that." He now knows the term "geographically desirable" as well as the facts that we two families are friends and, surprise, he and this boy get along really well every time they play together! It's so funny to me that he can't see that. But last year they were at odds, so it's nice to see them reconnect this year. (They have Transformers in common, among other things.)

SDI: We get program-wide updates on the curriculum, which is cool. I get no complaints from him, though not much else either. At least the name doesn't annoy him Every.Single.Time they meet, like last year's did. Funapallooza indeed. He was sorry he suggested that one!

Lunch: I'm running out of steam here, oops, it's after 11 PM. But this is big: He eats hot lunch at school every day. Hooray! No more buying Uncrustables at $1 a pop or getting up early enough to cook pasta every morning! If he deosn't like the main choice he has a grilled cheese. I pack him 2 bags of snacks, one for mid-morning and one for Afterschool. I was packing both snacks in one bag and a few sides for lunchtime in another, until one day he told me he always ate all the snacks at mid-morning snack and the lunch-bag snacks at Afterschool. So I shifted what I put where! However that info came out, I was glad it did. He didn't volunteer it out of the blue, but it was a real shift that he was able to articulate it to me, clearly and without anxiety, and that it obviously was something he'd figured out a way to handle on his own.

It's been almost a year since we reintroduced dairy products. It's been a good thing. I am trying to avoid giving him too much of the overprocessed stuff --we did a Goldfish challenge a few weeks ago, he was mainlining the things and I thought they were making him cranky -- but yogurt, cheese sticks, he likes and they help him feel full.

Playground: I'll end this on another strong suit. other than the being-obsessed-with-that-one-friend issue, I hear he's awesome on the playground. Some of the other Nest moms are still concerned that their kdis are using this unsupservised time to zone out, or fixate, but DB is playing games and interacting with other kids like a champ.