Proud Parenthood
Yesterday, my wife and I went to our Parent-Teacher conference for our 2nd grader. We were very pleased to hear some great news and that got me thinking...
This year, our kids are having really good school years in a number of ways and I'm extremely proud of them. The last couple years have been challenging. Our teen had trouble transitioning to middle school and our youngest just started grade school a lot less prepared for it than his older sister had been. But after a little bit of struggling with both of them, things have been going a lot smoother.
Two years ago, our teen (then tween) went from a small charter elementary into the bigger of the two middle schools, in fact, she got put in the larger of the two houses within the sixth grade. A substantial proportion of her closest grade school friends lived in parts of the district that fed into the other middle school. She was feeling a lot more alone, didn't really connect with some of her teachers, and by mid-spring was asking to be home schooled. We investigated some options with that and Edgewood and were more than a little worried about either choice. Then she fell in with the school musical. Working on the sets and backgrounds gave her just enough to decide that the middle school might be OK for 7th grade.
Then in 7th grade, she continued to struggle. It was no longer lacking connections with her teachers or wanting to be home schooled, though, it was being organized and getting her work done on time. One teacher in particular was really kicking her butt on not getting her work in. She tolerated no nonsense and though our teen's work record with her, year long, was spotty, our daughter really liked her teacher. She responded to the toughness and worked hard to get this teacher's recommendation for the Plus Trip reward. She didn't always succeed in doing so, but she did succeed for at least one quarter after setting that as her goal and, I think, was justly proud.
This year, despite the continued drain on her time of swimming and keeping up a fandom of Minecraft and more than one anime series, she has been running straight As (I should say "had", one grade slipped to A-, another to B+ but that's still damn close) and getting the vast bulk of her work done on time. She also seems to be really enjoying herself for most of her classes (a notable exception being Phys Ed where she maintained an "Emo corner" in the gym). The transition to high school will undoubtedly bring more challenges, but I'm a lot more confident in my daughter's ability to weather them and kick their ass.
Two years ago, our son started kindergarten. With a late August birthday, he was smaller and younger than most of his classmates. This was accentuated even more by the fact that he was entering a mixed age K-1 classroom. His teacher's assessment was that he was academically ready, but he was so very young and immature. We really didn't want to hold him out for another year so that he'd be a 6 year old kindergartener, though. So we soldiered on and it became apparent that he had some issues with behavior. He was a constantly-moving distraction for his peers. He was a reluctant reader. He made some questionable choices in his behavior around other boys (squirreling around, escalating confrontations). We were really concerned.
But we worked at it. We tried all sorts of methods to calm his activity and wandering attention before resorting to medications. I think all of those helped him get to the point he's at now, a point at which he sometimes does have the ability to identify when he needs to find a quiet spot to concentrate on his work. But he's also undoubtedly helped by his hyperactivity medication. His teacher, when we started him on the med in 1st grade, noticed a difference within 3 days and asked if something had changed - we wanted her unbiased assessment of any effect of the drug so we hadn't told her he was starting it. He was still the same little boy but a little bit easier to manage, with a little more self-discipline. The edge was taken off his ADHD and coping was working.
Around that time, our intensified effort to get him reading was starting to pay off as well. He would read the books he borrowed from the classroom (all with increasing reading proficiency levels) to me just before I read to him for bed time. It was part of our night time ritual (and still is). By the end of 1st grade, he had caught up to the reading level they want all 1st graders to achieve. He may not have exceeded it like our teen did 6 years earlier, but he was up to expectations.
This year, second grade, and it's like he's blossoming. He used to hate to write. It's so much work. Now, he's enjoying it more and can express himself much better in an organized fashion. His reading now exceeded grade level. He enjoys doing his math and understands the concepts quickly. His teacher, while saying that he still has some times he can't sit still, says that he's very intelligent, cheerful, and can sometimes recognize when he needs to settle down and seeks ways to do it.
Our kids are having a really good school year. I'd say I can't be prouder, but I'm willing to hold out that there may be times in the future in which they exceed even this year's accomplishments. So I'll just say I'm pretty damn proud of them.
This year, our kids are having really good school years in a number of ways and I'm extremely proud of them. The last couple years have been challenging. Our teen had trouble transitioning to middle school and our youngest just started grade school a lot less prepared for it than his older sister had been. But after a little bit of struggling with both of them, things have been going a lot smoother.
Two years ago, our teen (then tween) went from a small charter elementary into the bigger of the two middle schools, in fact, she got put in the larger of the two houses within the sixth grade. A substantial proportion of her closest grade school friends lived in parts of the district that fed into the other middle school. She was feeling a lot more alone, didn't really connect with some of her teachers, and by mid-spring was asking to be home schooled. We investigated some options with that and Edgewood and were more than a little worried about either choice. Then she fell in with the school musical. Working on the sets and backgrounds gave her just enough to decide that the middle school might be OK for 7th grade.
Then in 7th grade, she continued to struggle. It was no longer lacking connections with her teachers or wanting to be home schooled, though, it was being organized and getting her work done on time. One teacher in particular was really kicking her butt on not getting her work in. She tolerated no nonsense and though our teen's work record with her, year long, was spotty, our daughter really liked her teacher. She responded to the toughness and worked hard to get this teacher's recommendation for the Plus Trip reward. She didn't always succeed in doing so, but she did succeed for at least one quarter after setting that as her goal and, I think, was justly proud.
This year, despite the continued drain on her time of swimming and keeping up a fandom of Minecraft and more than one anime series, she has been running straight As (I should say "had", one grade slipped to A-, another to B+ but that's still damn close) and getting the vast bulk of her work done on time. She also seems to be really enjoying herself for most of her classes (a notable exception being Phys Ed where she maintained an "Emo corner" in the gym). The transition to high school will undoubtedly bring more challenges, but I'm a lot more confident in my daughter's ability to weather them and kick their ass.
Two years ago, our son started kindergarten. With a late August birthday, he was smaller and younger than most of his classmates. This was accentuated even more by the fact that he was entering a mixed age K-1 classroom. His teacher's assessment was that he was academically ready, but he was so very young and immature. We really didn't want to hold him out for another year so that he'd be a 6 year old kindergartener, though. So we soldiered on and it became apparent that he had some issues with behavior. He was a constantly-moving distraction for his peers. He was a reluctant reader. He made some questionable choices in his behavior around other boys (squirreling around, escalating confrontations). We were really concerned.
But we worked at it. We tried all sorts of methods to calm his activity and wandering attention before resorting to medications. I think all of those helped him get to the point he's at now, a point at which he sometimes does have the ability to identify when he needs to find a quiet spot to concentrate on his work. But he's also undoubtedly helped by his hyperactivity medication. His teacher, when we started him on the med in 1st grade, noticed a difference within 3 days and asked if something had changed - we wanted her unbiased assessment of any effect of the drug so we hadn't told her he was starting it. He was still the same little boy but a little bit easier to manage, with a little more self-discipline. The edge was taken off his ADHD and coping was working.
Around that time, our intensified effort to get him reading was starting to pay off as well. He would read the books he borrowed from the classroom (all with increasing reading proficiency levels) to me just before I read to him for bed time. It was part of our night time ritual (and still is). By the end of 1st grade, he had caught up to the reading level they want all 1st graders to achieve. He may not have exceeded it like our teen did 6 years earlier, but he was up to expectations.
This year, second grade, and it's like he's blossoming. He used to hate to write. It's so much work. Now, he's enjoying it more and can express himself much better in an organized fashion. His reading now exceeded grade level. He enjoys doing his math and understands the concepts quickly. His teacher, while saying that he still has some times he can't sit still, says that he's very intelligent, cheerful, and can sometimes recognize when he needs to settle down and seeks ways to do it.
Our kids are having a really good school year. I'd say I can't be prouder, but I'm willing to hold out that there may be times in the future in which they exceed even this year's accomplishments. So I'll just say I'm pretty damn proud of them.