The boy got very good marks today on his report card. Really, he couldn’t have done much better. The teacher had lots of good things to say about him as well.
I was curious a bit about the math curriculum, so I asked about that. The goal appears to be to give the kids a “more intuitive feel” for numbers and what they mean and they don’t want to just teach them “procedure.” I find that odd, because to my way of thinking math is procedure. For instance, I’ve been working with the boy on multi-digit multiplication and long-division. To perform those operations, there is a pretty simple procedure to follow to solve those problems. I don’t quite see how there’s a “feel” or “intuition” involved in solving them. If there is such a thing, I think it only comes from the experience of doing a lot of them.
As for the lass, she’s doing just fine. Her reading was the main concern and happily, she’s improved dramatically from where she was. She’s not the bookworm her brother is, but then he’s in 4th grade and she’s in 2nd. The boy’s proclivity for reading did not develop until the 2nd half of his 3rd grade year. Even so, there is no guarantee that she’ll be like her brother in that regard. We’ll keep working with her.
Aside from the reading, the teacher couldn’t sing her praised enough. She’s “a joy” to have in class and “gets along with everyone.” She’s always attentive and he never has to look at her funny or anything. I believe the phrase “model student” came up more than once and at one point the teacher even said that he’d hope that his son’s behaved the same way she does in class.
It was all a bit too much, actually. That much effusive praise is too much in some ways. Besides, I know what she’s like at home. That kid is a lot different from the one her teacher described.
So there will be no coal in their stockings due to poor reports from school.