Sunday, January 17, 2010

White Christmas

Here are some pictures from our 'white christmas'. When the rain started turning in to snow, Parker was super thrilled. She spent a LOT of time running around on the patio catching snowflakes on her tongue. Like her hodge-podge outfit? Santa hat, purple gloves and white shirt and legging, chosen specifically to match the snow.



This was the accumulation we woke up to on Christmas morning. They said this was the first White Christmas in 80-something years. And one of Parker's Christmas gifts was a new larger, warmer coat, just in the nick of time.



In other (more recent) news, Parker got her first report card this week. They do them mid-year, and end-of - year. As expected, she did really well and has mastered nearly everything. But instead of letter grades they do a "D" for that skill being "Developed: Successfully completes tasks independently." It is quite a shock opening up the envelope and seeing a big string of D's though (as I'm sure my parents can attest). The only area where she received a "SD" for "Still Developing" is on writing the letter J. I'm pretty sure she can do that.....so I'm thinking the teacher just threw in the SD so it would look like she actually checked her on each an every letter and didn't just give her straight D's.
Her reading level is a 12 on the DRA leveling system they use. The goal for the end of the year for Kindergartners is a 3, so she's well past where she needs to be. I'm not telling that though....I don't want her thinking she can slack off the rest of the year.

Here are the teacher comments:
"Parker is becoming more and more fluent and accurate in her reading. (she has moved from a reading level of 3 in Oct. to 12 in Jan.) She enjoys reading to herself and enjoys reading with friends, as well. Parker is very polite and respectful of her classmates. She is never in a hurry to be first and will often give another friend the opportunity to go ahead of her. I would consider Parker to be a very giving, caring girl. She is a joy to have in class! "

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Togetherness



Over the next few days, I'm going to try to post some of my blog backlog. With holidays, work and travel, we have been super busy, but I'm finally starting to catch up, so hopefully I'll keep the blog somewhat up to date. I know, I say that every time don't I? I think this has been my longest break. You know it's bad when blog readers start sending you cards in the mail mentioning that they are still waiting on Christmas pictures. (Hi Aunt Norma! Parker loved the card!!)

Bob took this picture of Parker and I reading together. There are not a whole lot of things that we do apart, actually. It's really nice now that she can read some independently, so reading time is no longer as much work for me as it used to be.


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