Step 2

A few weeks ago we had our annual parent/teacher conferences.  After all of the worrying I did about them, especially Grace's, they really did go just fine.

Eva is doing wonderfully in Kindergarten.  She is a great friend, energetic and sweet.  The only challenge is with her speech.  Being five, she still struggles some with the blends.  Words like "street" come out as "treat," or "stop" as "top."  When she slows down and really tries, there is no problem.  But it isn't natural for her, yet.  I really believe that as long as the teachers at school as well as us at home are consistent with making her repronounce these words correctly every single time she will be just fine by second semester.  We are still looking into an after school speech program, but it is doubtful that she will qualify.

Second grade is treating Alex well.  His teacher thinks he hung the moon. He didn't waste any time in getting her wrapped around his finger.  Although he does well in all of the subjects, math seems to be his shining star.  Scoring in the 98th percentile on the Iowa Basic Tests, he is somewhat of an expert in that area.  Plus, he really loves it! 

Grace has been struggling since last year, second semester.  This first quarter has been no easier.  We met with each of her teachers, and the concensus is that she talks too much.  I can understand this.  She has always been our social butterfly.  But the question is, why is she talking so much.  She is often the last one to complete assignments and tests...often times not finishing in the time allowed.  She forgets assignments.  She hasn't done well at taking notes.  She is oftentimes staring off in space. 

Last week, Chris and I sat down with her every single night to work on homework.  It has been pure agony for us all.  She gets frustrated so easily.  Everything is a distraction.  It takes a good, solid hour just to reign in her focus to even begin the work.  From there, it has been another hour or two to complete it correctly.  The problem isn't with the material.  Once her focus is there she knows what she is doing, and she actually enjoys doing it.  The problem is getting her to focus.  Sometimes I just want to shake her and make her concentrate.  But, even that wouldn't help.

We meet with the counselor again next week.  The first appointment kind of just provided us with the information we already knew.  I'm hopeful for some different suggestions this week.  It has been a full fledge family effort these past few weeks to keep her on task.  Yet, I'm really not sure we are succeeding.

I'm still waiting on one more teacher evaluation and the report from the counselor.  Once I have those, I can schedule an appointment with the peditrician.

This is all foreign territory for us.  I hope we are using our energy in the right way.  I am hopeful we can figure out a plan to help her.

In the meantime, all we can do is what we know.