Saturday, February 6, 2010

School News

We had Parent-Teacher conference yesterday with Calebs teacher.  The first thing that she said after we all sat down was, "So, do you know about the romance we have going on here?" We said, "Sofia?" She laughed and said that Caleb and Sofia are a 'couple'. She said that when Caleb and Sofia are talking their personalities shine. Apparently they are both very quiet kids that never talk in class, or out of place. They are very shy. She can really see their personalities when they are together, which is every chance they get. She lives in our neighborhood, so they have had several play dates.  Sofia wrote Caleb a letter.






It is worn because he carries it places around the house.

The teacher fills out a conference report that we get a copy of, and the school does.
 Here is what the paper said:
Caleb is making great progress in kindergarten! He is polite and respectful and always puts forth his best effort. Caleb has mastered all levels of the PASI though phoneme deletion and will receive instruction in substitution in SURF. The results of his DIBELS testing were reviewed. Caleb writes independently in  response to writing prompts, but spells some known sight words incorrectly due to mispronunciation. He  may need to be referred for speech testing at a later date. Caleb is working on reading SCPS word list B. He has shown mastery of all of the math skills that have been introduced and assessed this trimester.
So what do all those acronyms mean?  Your guess is as good as ours! She explained it all, but I could never even try to repeat what they are. They are the types of testing that assesses where each child is.  But we were assured that he is doing very well. If kindergarten were to end today, he would easily be ready for 1st grade. 
To move to 1st grade at the end of the year you need a total score of 35 on the PASI testing and he is already at 58. Another accessment needs a 25, he has a 34.  The third one he needs 40 he has 42.
She said she is extremely pleased with him. He is one of the top students!
The part of concern is the misspellings due to mispronunciation is with words like "with" he spells "wif"  Kind of sorta sounds the same, but not really. So since Speech Therapy is free, we are having him tested in March.  He may not need it, but since Zachary needs it and we see the benefits, it can't hurt.
Zachary got a Most Improved Reader Award this week.  He finished a Chapter Book with 80 pages.
Christina got an Honor Roll Award. She has a 3.0. She  has been applying for as many scholarships as she can.  Last Saturday her and I went to a tour of a college campus, and to get info on it.  Its not the campus of the one she is going to, (she was accepted to Valencia College-East) it was Valencia College-West.
She had to go to several College prep workshops and the parents had to go to their own workshops.  
Like, How To Let Your Child Go, Financial Aid. She should qualify for a Bright Futures Scholarship.
Its a Florida resident only scholarship for students with a 3.0 or higher. At 3.0 they pay 75% of your school and books. At 3.5 they  pay 100% of school and books. Christina's boyfriend Ben is going to college on a full Bright Future Scholarship.
Good week for the kids in school!
Elektra has also had a good week. She's pooped in the potty 3 times the last 3 days! She has gone in by herself and gone, and she has told me just before she needed to go.  She puts the Dora seat on and climbs up by herself.  It takes her a few minutes, but she won't get off until she has gone. 
She says, "I'm a Princess because Princess's poop in potty!" Its so cute.