OPEN HOUSE

Tonight we attended our first PTO meeting, which included dinner from The Hot Dog Man (James was thrilled to be eating hot dogs 3 days in a row this week - mama didn't plan dinners/leftovers very well...), followed by Open House. Jay and I split the kids, so he went to Kindergarten with Cora and I went to First Grade with James (though we both did briefly get to visit the other class as well). Cora's teacher and teacher's aid are thrilled with her behavior and skills, and had zero complaints or requests. She apparently loves Frozen (duh) and music time (again, duh), but is also wowing them with her reading skills and willingness to help around the classroom. She's a "delight" and that's very nice to hear! James' teacher is SO HAPPY with the progress he's been making behavior-wise (he was on GREEN yesterday and PURPLE today - we didn't even know he could get purple in his class...) and his academics are spot-on. His class does a lot of independent work (putting away their things, completing morning seat work, moving their own clothespin among the behavior colors, etc.) and his teacher says that this week if he gets off track, all she has to do is look at him and say "James" and he gets right back to what he's suppose to be doing. We found out that the kids keep a journal (I meant to look in his, but forgot because I was talking and taking pictures...) where they draw pictures and write their own sentences based on the story the teacher reads at story time. We saw some classwork similar to this come home yesterday and we were really impressed with James' ability to look at a picture and make up a few sentences about it, all on his own. They'll begin their AR exams soon, and are currently finishing up the pre-test STAR exams (which they'll take again at the end of the year to demonstrate how much they've learned). We're anxious to see how James is doing, but not worried, since he tested out at the First Grade 6-month level last March while in Kindergarten. (We already have Cora's scores and she did excellent!) The kids in his class are suppose to be reading and writing creatively and spelling (we started spelling words last week and I had flashbacks to my own Elementary school experiences and my mom quizzing me before bed each night), and while James is doing all these things, apparently more than half the class is not, so they're playing catch-up right now (which makes me wonder if some of his behavior issues lately have also been due to boredom, since they are currently doing work very similar to what he completed last year at Agape). Anyway, I counted desks this time (21 kids total: four groups of 4 desks, one group of 3 desks, and two solo desks in the back of the room...) and was happy to hear that the kids do get some social time during class in the form of small group work (completed with desk-mates). Also, peeking into the adjoining First Grade class, I saw/heard some things that made me really glad we ended up in Ms. Currie's class (and not the class we'd originally hoped for). Finally, we learned during the PTO meeting that SouthPark is gearing up this year to transform the school with The Leader In Me program, which is the program that the "premier" (AKA "Magnet") public schools in our area (e.g. Bowmar and Bovina) are accredited as. This is VERY good news for SouthPark, as it's an excellent program! They're also adding a skin cancer awareness curriculum to this year in order to qualify for an $8000 grant to help them install sun shades over the playgrounds, which makes us very happy! Good things are coming our way!

Cora and some of her classmates. The girl next to her, Elaina, is one of her new best friends

Big brother joined in the circle fun

James at his desk, while Ms. Currie goes through the daily activities for us parents

Showing off his behavior chart and some of his seat work displays