It's all about the kids

SEPs were yesterday, and it was so nice finding out that all my kids ARE doing wonderfully!

Brittany: Has all A's and 1 B+. Her teacher said she is excellent at reading and challenged her to read above her grade level, because he knows she can do it. When Brittany hears this, she snears, because she just thinks of books like Twilight or Harry Potter, lol! Brittany doesn't like fiction books. She would rather read non-fiction or autobiographies. I know. I don't know where she came from, lol, but it's so neat. :)

Koby: His teacher had very high praise for him as well. She said that he has a high aptitude for math, but she wants to see the WORK behind it, meaning that he figures things out in his head, and she wants him to show his work. Lol. Koby is a wonderful writer, and always gets awesome marks on his summaries. He likes to read, but it's not one of his favorite things, so while he's still "at grade level" with reading, his teacher knows he CAN read "older" books, it's just that he always looks at the SIZE/ how many pages the book has and freaks out. Lol. I challenged him to start reading Brittany's Magic Treehouse books. I know he'll love them. Besides- the MT books are actually designed at 2nd grade reading levels, so he'll do fine. Lol. He has shown great progress as far as his pouting/tantrums goes, but they still do exist, so we just need to work on that. Other than that, he's doing spectacular!

Ryan: Has also made HUGE leaps and bounds since day 2 of Kindergarten and the infamous SCREAMING fit he threw! LOL! Oh, and don't forget the game of "hide and seek" he played with the teachers at recess... aye yi yi. These days he's very respectful, and much more disciplined. He knows everything he should by this point, had beautiful handwriting (that's my boy!), and is showing great progress in reading. The only thing we need to work on with Ryan is the connection in his mind between the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. He knows it inside and out when he can see it on paper, but when you tell him to just SPELL out loud any word, he gets caught up on the sound and letters. So we'll just do what we did with the other kids- get out the wipe board and practice. :) The teacher also thanked me for working with him at home, and said that not many parents actually take that effort, and she can TELL when a parent is involved because of the child's behavior toward that goal in class. So it was nice to hear that I'm doing something right!
Jordyn: Is once again on the honor roll at school, which is awesome. She has such a hard time with a certain teacher, because this particular lady will give EVERYONE in the class an "F" for the STUPIDEST THINGS!! Like, if someone doesn't turn in their grades with their parent's signatures, she'll discipline the WHOLE CLASS. If a handful of kids in class are noisy and talkative one day, she'll give everyone an "F" again. It's TOTALLY unfair, and so all the hard work Jordyn's done to get an A or B out of the class, is totally wasted and she has to then do extra credit to RAISE her unfair "F" to a better grade. I've never had the chance to meet ANY of Jordyn's teachers, because they don't do SEP's or any type of conference with the parents. I think this is totally unfair, because I think parents have EVERY RIGHT to know what the teacher is doing to improve the minds and teach our kids! Sorry. Getting off my soapbox. ;) Despite this, she has some really nice teachers and loves school. Hopefully this certain "teacher" will teach Jordyn that the world isn't fair, and sometimes we just have to put up with it and move on. Besides the cirriculum, I really wish our schools had extra options like theatre, choir, art, yearbook committee, etc for the kids to participate in. We're very limited in our choices here, so it puts extra pressure on the parents to fill in the gaps. I just want my kids to have a FUN time throughout their school years, so maybe I'll have to get myself on the school council or something. . . . (shudder) Lol!

I've been wanting to take my kids to a Monster Jam for a long time! The boys LOVE "Grave Digger"!! Monster Jam will be in SLC on Feb 12 & 13th, but we can't afford to go because of our now-needed deductable for the truck. :( But the cool thing is that Monster Jam does come at least once every other year, maybe even more often than that. So- someday soon! So- if you haven't heard already, they'll be here and tickets are available on smithstix.com for anywhere froom $9-$40.

Holy Smokes, my "to-do" list is HUGE right now! I don't know about you, but I have to constantly write things down or I'll forget them. We have a "wipe board" on our fridge that always tells what food or items we've run out of, what our "to-do" list for that day is, or anything else important. We also have a metal wipe-board calendar that I write everything down for the month so we don't forget something we need to attend, or someone's bday. Then there's my HUGE "to-do" list. A list I type up if there's just a TON of little things that I NEED to work on ASAP so I don't forget, and this, my friends, is something I needed to do yesterday. I would remember something else every hour or so, but if I didn't write it down, it would escape me. My brain just 'aint big enough! Lol.

Am I the only one who has this mess? Those things you get in the mail, old bills, papers your kids did in school, pictures they colored for you, cards, letters, programs, receipts, notes from church, etc... they ALL have a way of just getting piled up in our "computer/craft" room, and I always have good intentions on filing it right away, but then 4 or 5 months later it gets necessary for me to spend a whole day or two and just sort, separate, and organize each little thing and try to find a file folder home for them. Ugh. I LOVE being organized, but I admit to having a hard time finding time each day to do this. :p

Well, after practicing a few times for the Sound of Music, the directors decided which students got which parts. Jordyn was bummed that she wasn't cast as one of the children in the play, and that two of her fellow 7th graders DID get cast as one of the kids... however, she DID get cast as one of the choir, so she's happy. :) Not everyone got to be in the play, so just having SOME part in it is a foot in the door!