It's hard

This week was a big week at school... 1st quarter is done (already!) and report cards came home. Middle school apparently works well for Abby. She's doing great, with an A- as her lowest grade in... ART! I think that's funny. Dave is offended. Nolan is also doing great. I also had a parent teacher conference tonight for him. He has the same 4th grade teacher Abby had, and I really like her. And, she really likes Nolan. She tells us he's a good student, he works hard, he really gets it. Yeah Nolan! (Sometimes we're not too sure!)

And then there's Max. I had Nolan's conference first and then Max's, and I sat talking to Nolan's teacher and told her I really didn't want to go to Max's. She made me feel better because her daughter is in 1st grade too, she also can't read great, and she's a little, ahem, disruptive in the classroom. On top of that, she feels like every day is a parent teacher conference since she's a teacher too and sees her daughter's teacher every.single.day. I definitely realized that things could be worse.

Max's teacher starts with, "Max is a really nice boy." Ugh. That's like "she has a really good personality," right? He just really struggles with reading. We do flash cards. One time through he knows the words, and the next time through, no idea. He makes up words if he doesn't know it, and adds letters that aren't there. Last night it took him 32 minutes to finish the flash cards, and tonight it took him 12 minutes. It's just crazy. She also said he gets math fine, when he pays attention. Yup, that's Max. He's always off in his own world. I love that because he can spend hours keeping himself busy, entertaining himself. But it doesn't work so well in school. I told her to tell him Focus your mind, focus your eyes, focus your body. It's what they use in Tae Kwon Do and it seems to work. We'll see!

Bottom line is she's not overly concerned yet. The end of Q2 is when kids usually "click." I hope so. For our sanity if nothing else!