School's been underway a while - how are your kids doing?

[queenofthehivemomof5]

Lets see, my twins are in first grade and loving it. They are in separate classes (they always have been since preschool, but people always ask me). Carly has her older brothers teacher from first AND second grade. So we know her really well and she is great! Liam has a teacher that is new to the district but he seems like a nice guy and Liam says he likes him. Carly needs to work on her reading and Liam on his writing. I am a little worried that Liam does not color pictures but scribbles still, while his sister draws elaborate pictures in ver fine detail. It can be hard to not compare them even though I know I am not supposed to. Seems a little odd that Liam still just scribbles at almost age 7.

Parker is in third grade and is doing great academically. I won't brag too much but the boy is a genius! He has autism (they are considering downgrading him to Aspbergers) and really his biggest struggle last year was toileting related. Over the summer another trip to the doc and we found out that he was filled with poo. Pervious x-rays did not see the backup but this time....oh boy! So we got him cleaned out, and on a regimen to keep him regular and he has only had one accident at school and that was because he (we) ate some bad Chinese food. And his overall attitude has improved too! So he is doing great!

Hannah, my 14 year old is doing good this year too. She is excited about her Spanish and Stained glass classes. She has Aspbergers and struggles with making friends. So her big goal this year is to make one good friend. Instead she announced last night she has a boyfriend! We get to meet the lad this weekend. So now we enter that phase! Academically Hannah always does just fine. I don't actually care about grades, and worry more that my kids are learning. But she gets A's and B's so I don't stress about it. Last week they had a presentation about peace Corp and she was really excited about that and wants to join when she gets out of school and go to Africa to help. Admirable! Beats her goal last year of wanting to be a greeter at Walmart. LOL

[Kulis]

My baby started all-day kindergarten just before Labor Day. He's enjoying it, but it sure is taking a toll on him.
During the first full week of classes, he came home with a fever. It didn't go away. Turned out to be strep. He missed two days of school. Thank goodness the next day was Saturday or he would have missed a third day, too. He came home Monday and fell asleep at the dining room table.
The meds finally seem to be working today, but he came home with a big scratch alarmingly close to his eye. One of his new friends, who is also on his soccer team, "accidentally" scratched him. I have to investigate this one.

I would have preferred a half-day program for him, but I don't have that option. I was told that by Thanksgiving his endurance should be better and he won't be so exhausted -- but Thanksgiving is two months away. That's a long time for the poor kid to be so tired he can barely walk the half-block home from the bus stop.

[queenofthehivemomof5]

My baby started all-day kindergarten just before Labor Day. He's enjoying it, but it sure is taking a toll on him.
During the first full week of classes, he came home with a fever. It didn't go away. Turned out to be strep. He missed two days of school. Thank goodness the next day was Saturday or he would have missed a third day, too. He came home Monday and fell asleep at the dining room table.
The meds finally seem to be working today, but he came home with a big scratch alarmingly close to his eye. One of his new friends, who is also on his soccer team, "accidentally" scratched him. I have to investigate this one.

I would have preferred a half-day program for him, but I don't have that option. I was told that by Thanksgiving his endurance should be better and he won't be so exhausted -- but Thanksgiving is two months away. That's a long time for the poor kid to be so tired he can barely walk the half-block home from the bus stop.

Awww poor little guy. We had all day kindergarten here too and my kids were so exaushsted afterwards they fell asleep eating their afternoon snack. My my kids were all afternoon nappers up till school started so it just wore them out. We adjusted their bedtime to 7 instead of 8 and that seemed to help. But they did finally adjust to it. They still sometimes conk out in the afternoon though and take a little nap. Hang in there mom it will get better!

[amylynne01]

DD1 started preschool last Monday and LOVES it! She gets so excited about going to school that she forgot to kiss her daddy goodbye on the first day. She tells me about a little boy in her class who cries during snack because he misses his mom. I asked her if she cried, and she said, "no mama, I love school so much". But her mama is still a little sad about her baby being in school.

Now of course since she's in a public school, they're already doing fundraising. Hello! She's THREE. You know who's going to sell this stuff??? ME. Not cool with this. Seriously considering boycotting the whole thing.

[enginerd]

My DS is in 7th grade now and still maintains almost a perfect grade point average. He likes his teachers but, as always, says he doesn't like school. Says he doesn't learn anything and it is just a waste of time. It is true that he has never struggled or had to work hard in any of his classes. I don't think the schools do enough to challenge gifted students - he will like school better when he gets to start chosing more of his classes and he can start college prep stuff. He was getting addicted to playing on the computer over the summer so he is now limited to one hour a day playing games and another hour for anything else (he likes music and he sometimes gets out his guitar, violin, or keyboard and plays music from the computer). We allow him to earn extra computer time by participating in after-school activities, doing chores, or exercising (we have a treadmill and a weight machine at home). He is now in the Tech Club, Recycling Club and is going to join track when it starts up next month. He ran on the treadmill for half an hour yesterday and then helped to clean the basement.

[3timesoccermom]

My first 2 had 1/2 day kindergarten, the youngest had all day. Like a couple of you mentioned, it's exhausting for those babies.

Moms with your first ones going to kindergarten you will not believe, when the year is over, how far these kids have come. It will be hard to believe they're the same kids.

Gertie - I have to say I think your daughter made a wise choices. And after a couple of years in nursing if the economy gets better maybe she can go ahead and do the drama thing. The dual credit classes are great prep for college for your other one.

Queenofthehive - I can only imagine the activity level in your house!!! I'm sure it's a lot of fun though. Once all that dies down by kids leaving and going out on their own you miss the noise and activity.

Kulis - poor little guy!!! Once he's back to 100% he'll be a new kid! My middle daughter had an incident with her eye getting scratched when she was in junior high. She'd just gotten contacts and a little twit threw a book and the corner scratched dangerously close to her eyeball - it left a scar too. I waited several days and tried to get un-mad about it but the little heifer didn't apologize, say kiss my rear or anything. I knew the mom and she is the sweetest thing on earth and I hated to upset her with the info but I felt she needed to know and I told her what happened. She did, of course, feel horrible and made her daughter write mine a note of apology, offered restitution (which we weren't interested in) and just went out of her way to say she was sorry. You are certainly due an explanation too.

amy - half the battle is won when your kids enjoy going to school. Every year the school's PTO would hype the kids up by telling them about the massive prizes they could win selling for their fundraiser and every year I had to tell the kids, again, that we have NO one to sell to and I am not about to buy the overpriced junk so they can just take their packets back or recycle them. A lot of places offer a "buyout" where you can just write a check and be done with it.

enginerd - I feel for your son. The day is long when you're not challenged and it's hard for some of those kids to keep themselves from getting antsy or even into mischief. I agree about not enough being done for advanced students. For next summer, maybe you can look into something like one of our local universities offers - I can't remember what it's called but it's kids' college classes for the gifted. They usually run a month or so and can be 2-3 days a week and they're interesting and fun. If you're close to a university you might call their continuing ed program and see if they offer these and if they do, to have them send you the info about this past summer to see if there's anything that sounds interesting.