School Meetings, Naturals, and Animals.

Last night we had a meeting at the elementary school with Honeybadgers teacher. Not a bad meeting, and not a parent/teacher conference, but a meeting with all of the Kindergarten parents in regards to SOL's and what they do all day and such. It's a way for them to get all of that stuff out of the way, so that when they do actual conferences in November they can focus specifically on what the kids are doing (or not doing).

We got to hear again how much Kindergarten has changed over the years, and even since just the Princess was there. They told us all the required benchmarks for the SOL testing stuff, and the PALS test. I'm not sure if they do those everywhere but it's to assess their reading and letter/sound/rhyming recognition and such. They showed us the smart boards (these things are awesome, and I was in total awe when I saw my first one in action last year), the computer center (his class has about 10 computers, and I felt really old remembering that we only had one per grade, starting when I was in 2nd or 3rd), and they have a new "smart cart" which is much more advanced than the smart board, but they haven't started using it just yet.

We got to see their daily weather graphs, and calendars, and then she showed us their color charts. This is their behavior chart, and conveniently Honeybadger has NOT mentioned this at home. They get asked things twice, and then they have to change their color from green to yellow, and then yellow to red. These have not changed much over the years, we had a bear chart when I was in Kindergarten and we called it "pulling bears" instead of changing colors, and I had to pull one the first week of school for telling the teacher to move. As soon as she started talking about this chart, and how some of the kids regularly have to change their colors I knew my son was one of these. Then it was further confirmed when she said if they stay on green all week they get a prize from the "treasure box". When we picked Kai up I asked him how often he changed his colors and he answered with the standard I don't know. Then I asked him how many times he'd gotten a prize and he told me "none" in a tone that indicated I should just KNOW that! Luckily we've only had one incident at school so far that warranted a note home, so I guess he's not being too bad, but I wish he could keep his act together for at least one whole week.

In other news, The Princess started dance. The teacher told her she was a natural then moved her up to the next class. I'm still confused as to whether or not they really watched her. I mean I see this childs' grace and clumsiness on a daily basis, she actually just fell off the porch a few days ago, and was doing nothing but leaning against C. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised at her recital in October, and again in May. And maybe it really will help with her coordination.

We also got two new animals for the house in the past week. A new kitten named Thunder

And a new puppy which is a puggle/terrier mix, named Atticus:

I haven't yet decided if the kids or the animals are more work. Shew.