Saturday, October 10, 2015

The open enrollment report

It may not be a good choice for all people, but it is working for K.  Considering that she essentially skipped 5th grade (except for maybe what would qualify as one grading period worth of some teaching) she is holding her own and doing well.  Her grades are what they usually are-- a combo of A's and B's and we are definitely not complaining.

The curriculum is more intuitive with math.  It is more difficult in other subjects.  She has gotten past that wonky period of "take a few tests to see how this study pattern goes . . . "  She has brought her vocabu-lit grade up from an initial 70% to a 100% this week.  My baby has got a groove with that.  The math went from a 70% to a 96%.

Can we sit for a moment and celebrate 70% as a first test score as a MONUMENTAL MOMENT?  Last year, her math scores began at 33%.

She has started violin maybe 3 1/2 weeks ago.  At 2 weeks, she was busting out Ode to Joy in the living room because, well, "Mom, I learned it last year in recorder and just knew it."  So she learned something on a non-string instrument, but took a year of harp, and translated it to an instrument that she had been playing for only 2 weeks.  Someone got her musical skillz and she certainly didn't get them from me.

My good friend, Heather, is a professional musician.  She plays, you have it right, violin.  She knows that K is technically a year behind on orchestra violin at this school, so she insisted that I bring her for a bit of an encouragement round up to get her rolling in the right direction.  She told me yesterday, "The music that they gave her for the program is second year music.  She is doing great with it.  Most kids wouldn't.  Don't worry.  She's doing well!"  So, she has second year music at 3 1/2 weeks.  :thumbs up:  My kid is musical and is holding her own.  Orchestra is two times a week and she needs to be there between 7:15-7:25 AM, ready to begin at 7:30 AM.  That leaves us leaving before 7 AM.

The spelling words are difficult, but she is consistently studying them.  We found out this last week that she has 5 bonus words per test.  Bonus to us means EXTRA points.  No, no.  They are NOT extra points.  They are from previous spelling lists and are expected to be known.  That's a great thing, but I probably would have used a term other than "bonus."

The gym teacher is more like a drill sergeant.  My heavens.  That man means business.  It's not a bad thing.  K has gotten used to boot camp for gym and not play time.

She just did a class project with a boy she was assigned to work with.  It seemed to be a good match of energy and she really enjoyed working with him.  It's a good thing.

She's making friends.  They seem to have accepted her as one of their own.

It's not something that would always work for everyone, but we have a one.  Open enrollment is working for us.