Report Cards

That's plural, because both kids got report cards - Ben got his today and Becca got hers last week. Becca's consisted of the very subjective word "great" for all categories except for the one about "controlling my emotions" next to which her teacher wrote "working on it." There was a little written section where her teacher expressed that Becca is a delight to have in the classroom, gets along very well with her classmates, is a leader without being bossy, and loves to do art projects. This was followed up by a brief parent teacher conference where I expressed my doubt that Becca is not bossy while in school, because she totally bosses everyone around at home!

Ben's grades of course are quantified a bit more objectively on a 3-2-1 scale with 3 being "Consistently meets Kindergarten expectations", 2 being sometimes, and 1 being not at all. This quarter he was graded on 22 subcategories, most of which fall into the headings of "reading and writing", "mathematics" and "character development" (with one lonely entry each under science and social studies). He got 3s in 19 of the 22, with a 2 for "writes several ideas that are connected, uses words that name, show action and describe; uses basic punctuation." His teacher wrote that he needs to work on leaving spaces between his words. He also got 2's under the Character Development section for "takes care of materials" and "works independently" (which he also got 2's for in the first and second quarter).

His teacher did write though that he has "continued to grow academically" this quarter, citing especially his reading progress - now at level 10 - and said he is doing a "great" job in math.

So I think that calls for a "good job Ben!" and a "good job Becca!" too.