Report Cards

It was report card time a couple of weeks ago and I am so proud of my kids!!! Tetyana has been working so hard. She and I do her regular homework that is assigned by the teacher then we do about another 45 minutes to an hour. I am using Hooked on Phonics and some free educational websites to work on reading and math skills (please leave me a comment if you know of some good sites). Although she was in school in Ukraine for nearly a year, I am not sure what they were teaching her. Her math skills were nonexistent and obviously she had to start all over in reading.

All of her skills were at grade level on her first report card except reading, which we expected. She will get more one on one attention in the classroom as well as go to the reading lab once it begins for further reading support.

She gets very frustrated when she is reading and most days when she melts down into tears I have her take a break laying in her bed to recharge. I am so not used to the tears. I do make her work hard and expect a lot out of her. Yesterday her teacher called me and told me how proud she was with Tetyana’s reading. She said she read a short story extremely well and couldn’t believe her progress. When I told Tetyana what her teacher had said, I asked her why did she think she was doing so well. She didn’t have an answer but I told her it was because of her hard, hard work. That our work together was paying off!

I would like to have her catch up to her peers at some point. She is so tall and she is starting to make comments about being so much older than the other kids. I want to protect her from hurtful comments kids may make in the future. She is already different because of the language. I just don’t want kids to tease her. It would break my heart!

Luke did fantastic! He brought home straight A’s. He has never done this before. He has always had a majority of A’s but also some B’s. He rarely likes to work hard and says “Mom, what are you worried about? A C is average and it’s okay to be average.” It drives me insane!!! I am such a type-A and like things done completely and perfectly. He could careless if he grew up and worked at 7-11. The hardest part is, he is so intelligent.

This year I told him and myself (and everyone else so they would hold me accountable!) that I was going to back off. That if he failed and had to repeat the 4th grade then this was the best year to do it in…not in middle school. I guess it worked. I have not pressured him to study for spelling (he has not brought home less than 101 points on every test), ready or complete his homework. His teacher agreed that he is a hard kid to figure out and is still trying to figure out what motivates him. He also told Luke that he will need to continue to work hard and not just expect that he will earn straight A’s in the coming quarters.

For now, I am thrilled with both kids academic progress!!!!