Today, I dropped the kids off at school and stayed in Peyton’s class to read a book and do some activities for PC. Since I work with another mom, the “pressure” is off a bit, as it’s not solely on my shoulders, so that’s nice. The other mom is very high tech and likes to do slides instead of read the book, so another thing off my plate. I do run the discussion and activities, and I share the agenda I have with her. It’s working out well, and we already have a break in reading, since there is no book in December. I left Peyton and headed to work. We’d started earlier, right after flag salute, so I had more time. I went to work for just an hour, but I got what I needed to get done. I returned in time for lunch duty, and I passed Peyton who was at lunch bunch. She didn’t see me, but she was looking around like she was trying to find someone. I didn’t want to disrupt things, since she was with the teacher, so I kept my mouth shut, though continued to walk toward the playground, right in plain sight. She wasn’t back before the end of lunch, so I never got to see her again. It was strange being out on the playground without her being there. I was afraid other moms or kids would ask me where she was. I didn’t want to have to explain why or where she was. Funny thing is that the other mom I read with suddenly told me, while we were setting up our book, “Peyton can really read!” I had to ask where she knew, if she’d seen her reading to others, or how. She admitted that she was “looking” around at all the classmates’ on line book reading program, since they are not password protected (something that was done with all of Brandon’s classes, starting in kinder). The mom knew Peyton was on “H or I”. I had to clarify that she was just finished up on I, and is now on J. I guess the mom hasn’t snooped in awhile. She told me her daughter was just finishing up on C, moving on to D. She wondered how Peyton got so far in her reading. I told her she had an early start, but that she does get very frustrated reading sometimes. She’s getting better about it but her book-reading is not as fast-paced as it had been, so she has met her match in terms of reading level. She enjoys reading the books from the library since there are no “quizzes” at the ends of those. Brandon brought home some extra credit work this weekend, passing it to me and immediately telling me, “I don’t have to do this.” I think he already knew what the answer was going to be. He did try though to tell me that he didn’t think we’d have enough money to purchase supplies (it’s a report about a planet of his choosing). I assured him we would go to Michael’s and purchase the necessary items. He resigned himself to the fact that he would be completing the assignment. He chose Jupiter. I’m happy he told me about it; he could’ve easily ditched the assignment before showing it to me. Glad he hasn’t figured that out yet.
Common core is finally catching up to Brandon. We received his report card today, and needless to say, he has a lot of work to do. His verbal/reading fluency has come back up, so I believe I owe him a trip to Golfland/Laserquest. The 2nd grade teacher was right that maybe a hitch in Brandon’s reading data last spring. He was on an upward trajectory, then crashed. She wasn’t too concerned, as she wanted to see how the next one would be. He’s rebounded, and definitely brought up his score. I am waiting because he’d been at the 90% proficiency in the first two trimesters last year, and I told him if he got back in that range, he’d get to go. He must have really been concentrating on that, because his math is now lower. Tiger mom just printed a bunch of sheets out for him to review. He has problems synthesizing information especially in word problem format. He’s great with just straight math facts, but he can’t apply those facts to real life situations. It is a balancing act, as each of the kids vies for attention with homework. I had Brandon working on problems all afternoon. Peyton received a harmonica from the Lunch Bunch teacher, so I’d banished her to her room to play. The teacher also commented that Brandon is not putting 100% effort, actually, it was much worse than that. It was like “he barely tries”. So, I’m going boot camp on him now…not accepting anything but 110% from him or it gets done again. He also just told me that he declined the nomination for PC representative. He previously told us that he’d tried, and had not been voted, but now he told us he was voted in, but declined!! I told him how disappointed I was in that. I talked to one family’s mom who was telling us how they’d requested that their eldest, a 5th grader, had to run for office. I think she ran against 8-10 other kids. She had to prepare a speech to give in front of the entire school, though she was so afraid as she is normally shy. But she did it. And she won! I was relaying the information to Brandon, to prepare him that that’s something that he’s going to have to do as well. He won leadership the 1st two years at school, and I’m trying to hone that for good…to motivate him. His rationale for not accepting the position – he’d have to miss recess 
One day per week! That’s it! 20 minutes. Definitely a “shaking my head” moment. Peyton was listening to all of this and taking it all in. I have another opportunity, when she is in third grade. Interestingly enough, she is the one who volunteers answers when I’m in class. Brandon did maybe once in the whole year I was in there last year. Peyton’s raised her hand with each lesson I’ve taught this year! She got through another week (though short) with greens and blues, so we’re still taking it day by day…