I Survived

The first full year of all the kids in public school has just ended. We all made it although we had a pretty big loss along the way. Looking back it was in a way good they were in school while things went south with mom, it gave them something to keep their minds into and took the pressure off me in keeping up with their academics. I have enjoyed being a substitute teacher and look forward to taking on more in that area next year.

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Ethan and Ben received their final report cards today. Ben had all As and Bs and improved in virtually every area, interestingly his 2nd tri grades were the worst of the three which is not surprising considering all that happened but they were still decent. I was extremely happy to see that his reading scores greatly improved; going into the fourth grade year he was at a 3.8 (third grade, eighth month) and his final report was a 5.8 (fifth grade, eighth month)! Excellent Benny Boy! He is also continuing his advanced math status.

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Ethan on the other hand was all over the board with grades, mostly As and Bs, a couple Cs not in subject areas but skills & conduct, the worst being a D in neat and organized work. Geez. He is also advanced in math and his final reading score was a 5.3 (fifth grade, third month) which totally shocked me because he is sort of a stinker about reading with me. But obviously he's getting it done at school. E is the athletically motivated kid in the family and doesn't read much for pleasure like my older two who gooble up books, Ben can go either way and does go through periods of book reading on long rides or to kill time, mostly if the Gameboy is out of commission.

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Fox has not received his final report card yet but we know he has all As. He got a certificate of Academic Excellence at the Middle School Honors Night although Rob and I were a little disappointed they did not further recogized the kids by saying their GPAs and noting other activities the students were involved in. Although they took time to note the Spelling Bee, Art Work, and Student Council participants. Many of the kids that got good grades were in sports and other personal endeavors which in our eyes is always notable.

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There are some changes coming down the pipe for next year as the school adjusts to more financial constraints so I'm already purposing to think and speak that all will lead to a positive situation for each boy at their various grade level and also for Alexandra at college. Change is good overall, sometimes uncomfortable, but always necessary.