Good grades!

Got my kids report cards this past week, and nothing but good news to report! Becky, in second grade, got all S and S+'s. (S standing for Satisfactory). She got O's (Outstanding) in Art and Music. Not surprised at all, as she is our little artist, who also loves to sing funny, quirky little songs, often at the top of her lungs. In kindergarten, she had one of her pieces of artwork displayed in the local museum. Here is a (blurry) picture of it:

Ryan, amazingly, got all A's and B's. There is a story behind this. Ever since second grade I have been advocating for him to be placed in the gifted program. They keep telling me he isn't qualified due to poor grades, and he has behavior problems. I continue to insist that his behavior problems and poor grades are because he is bored. Challenge him, I have argued, and both of those things will go away. I have been hoping that the school district would figure this out before his disillusionment with school became irreversible. Well, this school year, he progressed to middle school. In 5th and 6th grades, he got all F's and D's. The teachers all said the only reason they passed him each year was because they knew he was bright enough to do the work, and it wouldn't do him any good to hold him back. When I scheduled his classes for this year, I managed to get him placed in the gifted "team" (a team is a group of kids that has most of their classes together), and he is in all gifted classes. So I was ecstatic to come home from work night after night to find him doing homework. And even more ecstatic to see all A's and B's on his report card. Not to mention vindicated.

And when I saw his elementary school principal at the school carnival for Becky, I couldn't help but rub her nose in it. Of course, she completely failed to realize that I was saying "I told you so".