Happiness, exactly

Today I'm keeping my children home from school.

We are going to go to the art museum. Finally.

We won't ditch out again this time and end up at the Natural History Museum next door all day again.

Nope.

That is the second stop. The reward for surviving the art.

Plus, I really want to see the Faberge egg, and the marble statues, and the bodhisattivas or however they are called. Good good energy around some of the parts of that place.

Anyhow,

I'm antsy about it though. Kind of upset with the school.

I think they are over testing my kid.

One, I'm for sure of. The other, she's alright, she'll have fun anyhow. She likes hanging out.

Besides, I also get the keep the girls until tomorrow, giving me a rare Friday night to enjoy. I had planed on art for later and I'm planning for art all day. I feel like I haven't really gotten to see them too much lately. Two nights a week I get on this current schedule and Tuesday I spent the day cleaning and organizing every art supply they own. Now we have a clean table to put the Christmas tree on.

I also rearranged the living room. So that works.

And I found them clean pants, which somehow they didn't have any, or M1 had to steal pants from M2's drawer and then that was a hassle of course.

and I buy them pants every single time I go to the store practically. And not just one pair either, like 5 pairs of stretchy pants at least. These kids are GROWING.

I should sneak in their room now as they sleep to go through their drawers and weed out all of the clothes they are growing out of.

Is that how the other mom's do it?


Anyhow, I'm a bit peeved. I know we're in a great school system. That's amazing. But I don't appreciate coming to the parent teacher conferences A MONTH AGO and being told how amazing my child is really doing and that they are thriving and a little bit slow with math, but that's normal as she's one of the youngest in her class, and math isn't her forte in any case.

But then, out of the blue a week or two ago, it's like SOUND THE ALARMS! SHE'S BAD AT MATH!

Her teacher emailed me about sending math practice sheets. Which were sent before. Which we work on. She works on them almost every day with me or her step father or her grandmother and on the weekends with her father. We are all working with her to build her conceptual understanding on math and time and money. She's getting basic addition and subtraciton, sometimes......she can do the same problem twice and end up with two different answers.

Oh yeah, that number chart? She hates.

Her brain isn't clicking these things into place. There's nothing wrong with her, look at how much she is learning in all of the other areas. Look at her thrive emotionally and socially. Look at how happy she is. See all of her notebooks and pictures and drawings? Hear her sing or play piano or interact with other children.  Why isn't that enough?

Why do you have to push down her spirit by over stressing her out first thing in the morning with math class? We've spoken about this, it isn't her strength, she's already behind because she does not understand the concepts, why isn't she in a different math group? What more am I supposed to tell you as a parent? We do the worksheets you send home. We do her homework every night.

So you want to schedule a meeting with the school's entire intervention team, and the guidance counselor, and the principal, and the teacher, and me. Just me. At the crack of dawn on a Monday morning. So we can all discuss what? What?

I'm feeling really railroaded in. I met with her teacher and the guidance counselor a month ago and they felt that she was really doing great. No complaints.

So what changed?

And I get this shitty interim report all about her test scores. Her fucking test scores. Her daily weekly constant test scores. Why are they testing her so much? What are they testing her on? When does she have time to really learn and engage in these concepts before you are rushing them into another one? That isn't the second grade I recall, constantly taking tests. I remember spelling tests, which I enjoyed, once a week, and the occasional math test.

This is no good for these children, all this stress.Not my child. And I explain to them:

1. She's not a test taker, she's an active and brightly creative seven year old girl. She has a passion for writing stories and interaction. She loves to learn, but obviously tests are quite her thing.
2. Yes she is stubborn and doesn't focus on things she isn't interested in. Math is hard for her, she isn't interested.
3. She has difficulty focusing on a task in front of her. No, it's not ADD or ADHD, it's just how she is wired, full of energy and movement. The stillest she will ever sit is when she's behind the pages of a book she's engaged with or hovering above a picture she's creating or while she's creating new details in her worlds of minecraft on the iPad.


It just upsets me. I know they mean well. I hope they mean well. But I think it's too much. It is WAY too much. I love my children and I know that they need stability and structure and they should be in an Academic environment that challenges them and pushes them to the next level. BUT THEY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU SHOVE THEM UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

and I think this school system in particular is very careful about their ranking and test scores. They want to be at the top. I'm sure they don't want children with low test scores progressing into the testing levels if they aren't ready. Might lower their scores.

I don't know if I should speak up, mention how we are probably going to be moving (pray tell that the house assessment and closing go through) before the end of this school year and that my kids don't really mind repeating a grade if it makes the work easier the second time around. M1 does think school is hard. It took the last two years of battling her literacy development and then at once it just clicked and she's been reading like crazy ever since. She's one of the best readers in her class. The fastest reader too (hey! that's what I am good at!!!)

I am confident that this is what will happen with her with her math development. (I am the same way, capable, but slow to pick up and understand....it is like my brain neurons move super fast for reading stuff and extra slow for math and science concepts, chances that my daughter has the same learning types are highly likely)

Anyhow, big meeting Monday morning where I feel like I'm going to be ambushed is coming up and I am glad that I am able to advocate for my child and I won't sweat it because the school that they will probably be going to in a few months when we move will most likely be more laid back and not stressing out over needless test results they needlessly give.

This year has been enough going on for them and me and we don't need anymore pressure to do anything else except for being happy.

And today, that is exactly what we are going to do.