GENIUS...Exhibit A

Friday Grace received her progress report for her first grade year. Basically this report is designed to give the parents some insight into how their child is fairing in the first few weeks of school. These are primarily given in the lower grades when the children have a harder time adjusting to the structure and routine of the school day. Once the kids get passed the third grade, they only receive a progress report if they are having trouble in a certain area.

On the report, there are categories for Math, English, Reading and Behavior. Under each of those categories is the scoring section. The teacher can select working on level, working beyond expectations or needs improvement on (fill in the blank). I'm proud to say that Grace is EXCEEDING expectations in Reading and working on level on all of the other categories. Her teacher's comments were that she loved to listen to Grace read because she tries words that are challenging. Basically, Grace is a GENIUS. Both Chris and I have already suspected this would be the case because we are two smart cookies ourselves, and we'd have to breed brilliance. But, nonetheless we are both so so so so so proud of Grace.

Because of her stellar reading skills, she has been chosen as the only girl in the first grade class to read the responsorial psalm at Mass next week. She's ecstatic because the reading has some big words so she can show-off her exceptional talent. Plus she gets to raise her palms after each of her paragraphs to inform the congregation that they should join in the song. Bonus points as far as she's concerned. Chris and I will both be there at Mass to show our support. However, I've been told to leave the camera at home in order to be respectful to the sanctity of the Eucharist. I guess I can abide, since it's for God and all.

My mom works as an aide in the first grade classroom on Wednesdays. She claims that is the classroom they placed her in but I have my doubts. She finagled a way to be in Grace's class so she could spend more time with her. I was worried about this in the beginning because I was afraid Grace might act out more or feel like she can get away with something because MawMaw is in the classroom. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. She works even harder to prove to MawMaw how smart she is. One of the bonuses for us as parents is that we get to hear about all of the cute, sweet and intelligent things Grace does in class that we wouldn't normally know about. Plus, I get all the gossip on the other kids (whether I want it or not). My mom has since informed me that Grace is actually working beyond expectations in Math as well. Her teacher did not realize it because she was basing her judgment on the finished product of her Math papers and test (which she almost always gets 100%). However, my mom has noticed that Grace works ahead on all of her Math because her skills are more advanced than the majority of the class. She typically has her entire assignment complete and just rechecks her answers as the class goes over it. How smart is she.

We couldn't be prouder!