Here's my sweet Sadie. She is getting to be so big. I can't believe she's almost a second grader and will be baptized next year. She hasn't really been around that long, has she?
I worry about this one. She's so smart and so enthusiastic about all sorts of things. I can't really keep up with her and I'm always wondering if I say 'no' too much and don't give her the time and attention that she needs. Plus she gets dumped on a lot as the oldest and I expect a lot from her. I just hope we can get on the right path now so that we don't fight like crazy when she's a teenager.
Sadie excelled in 1st grade. Only three days left! She's a very proficient reader and is the top reader in her class. She tested out of 2nd grade sight words at the beginning of the year and I think they just stopped testing for that. One little girl finally moved up into Sadie's reading group but Sadie still reads too fast for her to keep up. This weekend she was re-reading Little House on the Prairie for the billionth time. She also loves American Girl books and Magic Tree House. She is also very interested in space and aquatic animals. She wrote a very extensive report on leatherback sea turtles, complete with shoebox diorama. I kept trying to get her stop once we met all of the requirements but she insisted that she keep going and do every last extra thing that she possibly could. When she finally gave her oral report several weeks later her teacher said she did great. She remembered all sorts of interesting facts, didn't need her notes, and was VERY animated. We have struggled figuring out where to put her for next year. The school is making lots of changes and we want the very best class for her. Skipping grades was mentioned again but we just don't want to do that. We finally settled on a 2nd/3rd multi-age classroom with one of the most experienced teachers at the school. She should be able to move on at her own pace and have more control over her own learning. The only thing we're worried about is her getting stressed out with the pressure to finish everything. She's SUPER meticulous and pretty slow. She and her teacher worked out a system so that Sadie starts getting ready to go home 5 or 10 minutes before everyone else so that she can be ready on time. And if there's a one page rainbow poem to write in 15 minutes, she's going to want to do a three page poem (which will take her an hour) because she knows she can. Her teacher has been great this year about letting Sadie change the assignments so that they are more challenging for her. I hope 2nd grade goes as well!
UPDATE: School's out now! Yippee! And her class for 2nd grade has changed again! She's now in a regular 2nd grade with one of the fabulous 2nd grade teachers. Lots of her friends will be in there too. We're just having the hardest time finding a good fit for her. But her report card was perfect except for one minor flaw. An S- in 'Completes assignments on time.' That girl is just slow! And we found that she's performing on the level of a 4th grader in some areas.
This is getting long so quick wrap up... Sadie loves crafts and art of all kinds, reading, riding her bike/scooter, observing nature, and playing on the computer. She and Madoc play great games of pretend together but she doesn't really play with toys anymore. She loves making lists and has a very extensive one for summer activities and reading subjects. She can be very helpful and responsible when she wants to be but sometimes her help causes more stress to me than she realizes. But overall she is just so smart and grown-up that I can hardly believe it. She's not much of a little girl anymore.
4 comments:
I can't believe how grown up she is. She's such a smarty pants.
This was so interesting for me to read, Ashley, since I felt like I could have written the same things about Abigail. Good to see that it's normal to worry about saying no too much and having high expectations--I really struggle with figuring out this parenting thing the first time around, you know? And it sounds like our girls are having similar experiences in school--I felt SO blessed this year that Abigail had 5 other kids in her class who were all at the same level as she was, so they could sit in their little reading group and read their 4th/5th grade books while the other kids were sounding out sight words. Pretty intense, and a major source of stress figuring out what will be best for her next year (she's going to be in a self-contained high-ability test, but like you, I've been worried about how she will handle the additional pressure, especially since they tested 300 kids for 22 slots, so everyone in the class is going to be the big fish. It will be interesting.)
Anyway, this is getting way too long, but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this because I identified so much with your concerns and experiences with Sadie! Wish you guys lived closer. :-)
Interestingly, this sounds so familiar. I can remember those exact same questions and all the worries. So glad that is over. And look how things turned out!!! Love you all and can't wait to see you. Muuaaah!
I was really slow in school too. I think it's because I didn't feel challenged in my learning. Since I wasn't learning anything new, I took up the challenge of trying to get everything perfect.
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