Katherine Grace- School Update

We are currently in the midst of sickness for the kiddos (me soon?). It's not that bad. Really. I am grateful that we do not have children throwing up (for the most part). Always grateful for that! But they are running high fevers, have a bad cough (causing them to throw up at times) and are pretty congested. It has lasted longer than I imagined it would! And Kate and Collin both spiked fevers of 102. 6 in the same night, so we took them in to the doc. Kate had had a fever for almost a week and Collin had just come off antibiotics, so we wanted to check it out. 

This guy doesn't have a fever. Yet!

Kate is on amoxicillin for a sinus infection, Collin is just being observed, assuming it is viral and Ayden got his dry skin looked at and we are treating for a mild case of eczema. Nothing like a three-for-one deal on the appointment! Oh also, of course at the time of the appointment - the kids were in great spirits and didn't seem sick at all. Prior to that and afterward, the fever returned and they were clearly not themselves. So tragic to have them feverish. Collin was so not himself. I was nursing Ayden and Collin was slowly walking toward me with the saddest eyes ever. He kind of collapsed at my feet and kept burrowing in towards me. Poor babe. I'm hoping today we can get through the day feeling a bit better! 

He just sort of laid down. He NEVER goes that. :(

Kate spending quiet time reading

On the way home from the doctor

Okay, on to the bright spot of our recent days! Thursday evening we had Kate's parent-teacher conferences. Okay, I'll admit. I almost forgot. Like, was not in my brain at all. Thank the Lord I had put a reminder in my phone to pop up. Kate was not feeling well, so Dave stayed home with the kids while I ran to the school. 

WARNING: Brag alert. Our daughter is amazing and I'm going to describe how awesome. Warning over:) 

Her teacher is not very...smiley. :) But I've heard that she is very good! I knew Kate knew her stuff. I  mean, I'm not worried about any of the skills they are learning. I really wanted to know about her behavior in the class, with other kids. The most interesting thing is she is NOT as bossy as we all thought she would be. Mrs. Dummer said that though she is a leader, she is not too controlling of the play with others. When I was on the field trip, I saw her in charge of the girls activities when they were out playing. Mrs. Dummer said it isn't usually like that. She said she was surprised to see her behave like that. So...it looks like she saves that behavior for us:) 

Working this year on spelling her full name:)

She is killing her academics. They do a variety of testing. She basically aced it all. On the state PALS test, the average test score for Kindergarten is 28. She scored 101. The maximum is 102. On another test, they ask the kids to count and Mrs. Dummer said she had to ask Kate to stop at 125. :) She told us not to be alarmed if she scored, say, a 98 on the next test as sometimes there are just little mistakes and she is still scoring up at the max. 

PALS results

They have a time of the day called ELT (expanded learning time). It is interesting, she was trying not to say that they are separated into groups based on ability, but then she did just basically say that! Kate has been with two other boys in the highest reading group. Colby and Dawson. She talks about them a lot and I just started noticing this past week that she seemed a little competitive with them. She was upset they knew some math problem she didn't. Colby also gets to work on higher level things in other areas and I think Kate felt that. Mrs. Dummer said she had to pull Kate and the other two boys and say that they would move them up from their current group (after the first quarter) but they don't have another teacher to come in and do another group (they split into six different sections/teachers during this time). Anyway - she is doing really great! 

There is a student with severe behavioral issues and her teacher was really, quite frustrated how it takes away from the rest of the class. She said she has to spend SO much of her energy and time with this one student (I get a story about her from Kate every day:) and it isn't fair. There is a big color (stoplight) behavior chart for everyone and I saw it in the corner and said I ask Kate every day where she is was on the chart. She is usually on green and blue (good) but Mrs. Dummer goes, "Oh, she should probably be on purple and pink most days. I just don't have time to see all the good things that are happening." Good to know! But I feel for these teachers that have so much to deal with. She said Kate is one of the few students she trusts and will get to do special errands in the school as well.

A stellar report. I was so bummed that Dave wasn't there to hear it from her. I was also amazed at what Kindergartners are doing these days! They have science three days a week (yay!), Math every day, in writing - they make books and are focusing on "small moments." So, they aren't wanting the stories they write to be  - "We went to the pumpkin patch. It was fun. It was cold. Pumpkins are orange. The end." They are supposed to focus on a small moment and describe it in more detail. "We went to the pumpkin patch. I saw a black cat. I wanted to pet it. It ran away." 

I was pretty impressed with Kate's books! The kids pick their topics. And reading Kindergarten sentences is SO fun. Here are a couple examples of Kate's: 

She chose to write one on the Mississippi River: 

The Mississippi River

There are boats on the river

The river has waves

It has bridges

It has trees next to it.

This one she wrote on Sunday School:

I made a craft at Sunday school

I liked to color it

It had three people on in. Boaz, Ruth and Naomi.

It was fun. :) 

Well, Dave is out hunting right now. Always an interesting weekend:) Kate has girl scouts and we need to bake some cupcakes for that meeting tomorrow. The snow missed us! We were excited for it and the storm went south. Oh well. It is cold but will be mild next week and looks like rain on Thanksgiving. Can't believe we are already to Thanksgiving week!