just let the kid read...

by teresa

I am sitting here outside karate class. Bored! I went inside for a minute…but the place smelled so bad of stinky feet that I had to retreat to the car. I brought my laptop to play around on while the boys class was going on…but the dojos wireless server is down. So I am typing it on Word and then pasting it on blogger later. Just so I won’t go crazy sitting here doing nothing. I would curl up on the mat and take a nap …but I think I might get in the way. The fellas have been enrolled at this school for a year and 9 months…and I still haven’t made any dojo friends yet. Isn’t that sad. Don’t get me wrong…everybody is friendly and we chat a little and say hello. But most of the kids here are home schooled…and lots of the parents are very vocal about their opinions of public schools. It’s not nicey people. Whatever! Can’t we all just get along? I think home schooling is great…just not for me. Kapeesh?

I had a really good time at Nick’s school today. He even came in the library for a while and was very pleased that I was working in there. Which shows further that the child is a total geek. And I love it! I was asked to come back tomorrow and help get ready for the parents open house on Thursday. I even got to run the show solo for a little bit today while the librarian ran some errands around school. She thinks I am a total wonder because I am so quick on the computer. You can tell she hasn’t had much experience with technology…while I on the other hand spend way too much time on the computer each day. For some reason I am like speedy Gonzales when it comes to data entry. Seriously…I’m like some kind of freak. A lot of good that does me making pb&j’s and doing laundry everyday. But at least it’s there if I ever decide to go back into the workplace.

Tonight I cooked dinner at like 3:30. I wanted Nick to be able to eat as soon as he got home from school (at 4:00) because karate started at 5:00. We did get a little homework in too before we left. So once we get home I will get Ben into bed and read with him….and then once Nick is done with his homework I will do the same for him. Oh yeah…I almost forgot to tell you this. Nick’s school has accelerated reading program (I know I have mentioned this before). Every book has an assigned reading level. Like HPGOF is like a 7.3 reading level. Well at the beginning of the school year the kids take a test (10 questions) that will identify what levels they should read from. Nick’s results came in low. Like it says he should read between 3.2 and 5.9. I was like ????? Well…he has already read 2 books and was going to take the AR tests on them….but his teacher told him they were above his reading level. So they wouldn’t count. Are you (excuse my French) fa-reek-ing kidding me?????? I can see that they wouldn’t allow a child to read BELOW their reading level. But not letting children reach above their reading level….doesn’t that seem ridiculous? I REFUSE to accept this! Seriously! You guys know how important reading is to me and my family. And the books I have in our home library are the best…top recommend…award winning…bestseller list books out. I do this because (it’s simple)….the better and more exciting the book selection…the more the kid will want to read them. The school even promoted a new list called “Virginias young readers” list. It is supposedly the “must reads” for middle schoolers and above. We have all but one of these books at home already. And guess what…….only like 2 of them are in Nick’s reading level. So how can they exclude children like that? These are the best books around….but you and you can’t read them. Or you can read them but not be allowed to take a test on it. And by the way…they are graded by how many points they get each nine weeks. It’s an English grade people….and they won’t let the kids excel beyond their limit! Nick loves to read…he has read 600 page books on his own…he had the most AR points of any one in his 5th grade class….and I will not allow him to be dragged down to reading baby books! Well…I think I need to get off of that subject. It’s getting me all riled up. Pray that I will choose the right words to express my side to his teacher. I will make sure to let you know how his teacher responds to my opinion.

I am going to head inside now….they had the door propped open so hopefully the funky smell has faded.
TTFN…