counting down

The countdown to Santa’s arrival has been a math/counting activity for Rigby. Every night she gets the chalk out and writes down the number of days left till Christmas. This is her job and she treasures it.

Fed Ex Santa

This past weekend we went to the airport ramp to see Santa arrive on an airplane. We got to have a few slices of pizza with him and even each got presents. Rigby got a sand/water activity, not really a toy. You squeeze the sand into water and it holds it form. She opened it and was immediately disappointed as she really wants a purple unicorn. She does not want a pretend one or a plush one she wants a REAL purple unicorn so I don’t even make illusions that it is going to happen. So she was a little sh*t but after a few minutes and a candy cane she was over disappointment and wanted to open it and play.

snow flakes

We had a cubical decorating contest at my office and one of the themes was Winter Wonderland. So I spent the two weekends leading up to the decorating at home cutting and perfecting my snowflake making abilities. So I showed the girls how to make them and that is now a past time for them. Other than the 1,000,000,000 pieces of paper on the floor at all times I don’t mind. I think Santa might have to bring them a ream of paper for xmas.

new again

I boxed up all the Christmas movies with the Christmas décor. So when the decorations went up the movies came out and they are all happy they have a new array of flicks to choose from. Same with all the dozens of Christmas books the girls get them all out and flip through them and get excited.

Jack's arrival

The day after Thanksgiving our very favorite Elf arrived at the Scott household. Jack only showed up about 30 minutes before the girls woke up. Opps!! He was sitting in plain view on top the tv with his book that outlines the rules. We read the book before breakfast so we could review what we can and can’t do.

parent / teacher conference

Mrs. Dilione requested a parent/teacher conference. I did not think to ask while I was there if she was calling in all the parents or if Rigby was being singled out. But I did not get good news, it was not really bad news either just very disheartening facts. Rigby is a very bright student and knows what is going on, BUT she does not listen/follow instructions well. This is evident in her homework. I can see that she grasps the concept but did not pay attention to what the directions are indicating and did it her own way, therefore, she got the problem/paper wrong. I know that the students have computer time at school. As Rigby has mentioned this to us, but I did not realize that they were testing the kids. So Rigby is just going on the computer and “click, click, clicking” away and not listening or paying attention to the instructions. So she got all the problems wrong and that is the report that goes to the office and is on her record as she is a “critical” student. She displays this same behavior at home and it unnerves me. The teacher said that she would not be held back, but this would make 1st grade very difficult for her if she does not improve. So we have to work on 1 step instructions, then move to 2 step instructions. We have to work on doing so called book reports. Like where we read the bedtime story then we have to review things like, character, setting, ect…this helps make her focus on being an active listener not a passive one. This will be harder on me than her, I think. Also, we are to try to isolate her when doing homework or reading (Adler in the other room) this will be very difficult to do, but even if Adler is not talking she could be a distraction from the work/story/goal. I am very worried for her and will try to do my best to support her to improve these skills but not sure I am best equipped to aid her as I have a hard time focusing and I am a groan adult.

homework folder

Rigby gets a homework folder on Mondays/Tuesdays and it is full of a dozen or so homework papers. I think this is to help reinforce what they are doing in the classroom. I believe that the homework is a re-hash of the week before lessons. So if last week they were studying the letter “C” and this week the letter “T” the homework is “C” related. They do not do it in alphabetical order. They work with letters that can make the simple words, cat, hat, bat, ect….What amazes me is the sheer volume. They are sent home 12-15 pages. I tackle this by doing about 3 pages a night as we have to return the completed folder on Fridays. There have been days we are not as disciplined as needed and she would have to do homework in the mornings after breakfast. That is normally on a short week and I forget we have to turn the folders in the day before. We normally get good grades on the homework, but sometimes we get points off and that is not Rigby’s fault…that is mommy/daddy’s fault as we did not understand the instructions and so we told her to do the papers wrong. Opps. I guess we have to bone up on our Kindergartener skill set.