So the little guy has officially completed a week of Grade 1. So far, so good. The teacher is wonderful - she keeps parents posted via a communications app. To be honest, that’s pretty much the only way I get to know what’s happening at school. My son is usually pretty vague about what he does. It’s as if he’s in Vegas…or Fight Club. I sometimes wonder if he’s hiding something. He DOES talk about playing with certain kids - his Bug Bros (they look for insects)…and lunch. He definitely doesn’t talk about what he learned unless prompted. But maybe that’s just a Grade 1…thing?
So far, the class discussed feelings, patterns and wrote journal entries about their summer - sort of a review of sorts from Senior Kindergarten. They’ve also had gym class a few times, French and music. I only know about this because of the aforementioned app and his schedule, which was sent to us right before the start of school. He started his after school extra-curriculars as well. He seems to like multi-sport more than his STEM-focused program. And we are talking about a kid who loves math and science. I guess it’s the ability to run around that hypes him up. Grade 1, after all, is more seatwork!
Speaking of seatwork, his ability to sit still has improved…a bit. He’s had a couple of piano lessons where he actually DID sit and listen to the teacher! We switched teachers this year because I was looking for something more serious for him. It’s nice to see that he’s actually playing “real” piano. While his last teacher DID work on reading music and finding which keys correspond with which notes on the keyboard, there was nothing about, say, staccato or what forte and piano mean. These are REAL music lessons (but still fun). One of the books he’s using was one I used 40 years ago! And yes, he’s getting stickers! Music lessons can REALLY help with discipline...with the right teacher. I guess it’s like finding a therapist. You just have to mesh with them.
I haven’t seen the full curriculum as of this writing, so I only have a rough idea of what the kids are going to be working on this year, especially in classes other than “core” (math, English, science and social studies). I’d love to know what the focus on art and French are and whether the music program would encourage the kids to participate more in performances (the little one was barely doing anything last year). And with French, does it start getting more serious? I don’t mean whether they’ve started conjugating verbs and journaling in French, but whether they’re learning the alphabet and how to spell a few words. Because if you ask him right now, he probably won’t be able to tell you that “un chien” means “a dog” or how to say the letter “c” in French.
We’ve also restarted using a language arts app that was introduced to him last year. Unfortunately, he dropped down a few levels based on some sort of placement test. I’m not sure WHY there was that much regression since I was working with him throughout the summer. He kept on asking me why and all I could say was that was what the teacher thought and that sometimes you need to have more practice, just like in piano. I’m not sure if that’s all that great for his self-confidence though. He’s a pretty competitive kid!
If you have kids, how has their school year been so far? Are you worried/happy about their grades? Socialization?
Alright Way to go