My Boy Has A Lot Of Promise

My son started 5th grade 2 weeks ago. He goes to a school that has a short 6-week summer break and starts the next grade at the end of July. School is then in session for 9 weeks, followed by 3 weeks of break. We love the schedule for the most part. It's difficult in some ways now that my oldest child is in middle school and is on a traditional school calendar, but we wish that she was on the modified calendar still!

K Man has been diagnosed with dysgraphia, fine motor skill delay and short-term memory impairment. We have taken him for testing twice since 2nd grade. He tests with a high average IQ which, in Minnesota, disqualifies him for an IEP, but he still is able to have a 504 plan. (Don't know what they are? Please Google!)

We are very fortunate to have a principal that is willing to go the extra mile for the kids in his school, so he found a loophole to get K Man OT to improve his handwriting (it is better, but still hard to read) and extra help to develop his general writing skills. He's also received help with reading since 2nd grade.

The school uses a color system to level the kids for their reading skills. K Man was below grade level all of last year. Just today K Man almost tested at grade level. He was 2 vocab words away from testing AT GRADE LEVEL. This is HUGE for him and I am so proud of him. He has come a long way since 2nd grade.

I know the kid is brilliant in perhaps, non-conventional ways. He will find a niche and blow it out of the water. He continues to surprise and perplex me. I'm sure I'll never understand how his mind works. I'm excited to see his future endeavors.

Now There Are Two in Double Digits

Yes, it's true. K Man is the big 1-0. He started fifth grade on Monday, then yesterday he had his tenth birthday and it's a whole lot of growing up in two days.

 He's growing into such a handsome and smart guy. He's funny and loving (most of the time). He can also tick me off to no end, but that's not surprising considering he has two stubborn parents. Love this boy so much.

Looking for the Slo-Mo Button

 It's one of those things that people tell you all the time when your kids are babies... "Oh the time goes so fast." I always laughed and agreed but I don't think I really realized how quickly the years would seem to pass. But suddenly my first baby is 10 years old and in her final year of elementary school. She's irritated by this only because she will be out of the school the year before her little sister starts Kindergarten there. She feels a bit ripped off that she doesn't get to go to school with her.

By the end of this school year I will need to face the fact that my first baby will be in middle school. There is a smaller school that I hope to send her to but there are a lot of people who'd like their kids to attend school there so we will be subjected to a lottery. If she doesn't get selected as a student there, my first reaction is to home-school her. She learns pretty easily (especially considering the difficulties her brother faces) so I think it would be okay. I think. I'd still rather see her attend the middle school though.

Middle school scares me though. I'm not ready for any of my children to graduate to the pre-teen angst. Middle school was hard for me. Girls can be very cruel to one another. I have a strong feeling that it's worse today than it was when I was in school.

M still assumes the best of people, which is both good and bad. Sometimes she just doesn't realize that someone is not being kind to her or that someone may not be treating others nicely. I've talked to her about a few of the girls in her class and she's been slowly separating herself from these girls with questionable motives. Her teacher remarked at her conference last week that M is especially kind. She helps her classmates who have more trouble learning than she does. She doesn't realize she's helping herself as well (to teach someone to do something reinforces your own learning of it) and she does it selflessly. I want her to retain this kindness, but I don't want people to take advantage of her kindness either.

I don't want them to hurt her beautiful heart. That's the part of parenting that stinks the most...knowing you have to let your child get hurt sometimes...knowing it is a part of growing up and growing away.