Sunday, February 18, 2007

Weekly Review

Well what a week it has been. It's been very busy with school stuff & with me trying to learn a new way of doing things for year 3 (standard 1). The year 3 teacher is realtively new, as in she's only been there a term, so we are all trying to learn how to do things. Unfortunately I have had a run in with her already & there have been several instances when I didn't fill in Brent's homework diary as fully as it has to be. Unfortunately she kind of put my back up when we got told that because Brent had missed one day of school he had missed out on a lot. The way she said it was basically reprimanding me for having him out of school. I realise I shouldn't have him out of school but I really thought that we should all have a family holiday, just us, where it was only using one day of Scott's annual leave allocation. What the heck is wrong with that, when even the school's that started off early had the Monday before Waitangi Day off. I really think we should make Waitangi day connect to a weekend (either be a Monday or a Friday) & then if we do that we may as well change the name to NZ Day which is what I think would be far more beneficial for race relations in this country.

Scott's very interested in meeting this teacher on Monday at the meet the teacher BBQ.

On Thursday we had the meet the teacher BBQ for the year 1 class. Mrs Williams said the same speech that she said about two years ago to us when Brent was in that class. It was good to get to meet some of the parents of the new boys that are in James' class.

This weekend Brent has been staying with nana. Earlier on this week Brent had been very sad & withdrawn although he had come right by Thursday. I think it might have stemed from the huge amount of homework he was coping to do each night. He was spending 30 minutes on maths, 30 minutes on his spelling & english activity sheet & then another 10 -15 doing his reading. He was just absolutely switching off & would bualk at the sight of so many sums to do for maths. Luckily he has now been assessed & is having a remedial maths class so the homework has suddenly dropped off a lot. What was taking him 30 minutes to do has been trimmed down to a far easier 15 minutes. Hopefully this is about how it will stay because I think I have got a system worked out to cope with it. We will start by doing his spelling together (I have to test him) & then I should be able to move on to James for 15 minutes. Once that 15 is up we will all go & have a break for 15 & then we will come back & Brent will do his 15 minutes of maths. After dinner we will do his reading (he loves reading so it's not such an issue) & then I'll read to them both. Hopefully this will work & Brent will still be our happy smiling boy.


Today we went & registered both boys for soccer at the Burnside club. I didn't realise it was one of the largest in the South Island. James will be in the 4 &5 year old group learning basic skills & Brent will be in 7th grade. Brent has said all term that he wants soccer to be his winter sport so I thought we would take the chance & enrol them both. James isn't quite so keen on the idea but seemed very happy when he got to put on his shin guards that Scott bought him today. At this stage it looks like the soccer will start just after the April holidays. Both boys will be playing at Burnside Park so at least we will all be in the same vacinity as each other, that should make spectating easy.

Next week we have the BBQ on Monday as well as Brent's swimming lesson. On Thursday we will have James' swimming lesson & then both boys have their school swimming lesson on Friday. They should both be bringing home effort cards on Friday too. Mrs Williams has already told me that there will be a lot of yellow on James' card because he just doesn't listen (no kidding! why aren't I surprised?). She can't believe how chalk & cheese the boys are. I have no idea how Brent is going, I can see him putting in a fair bit of effort at home but I'm not sure what the classroom situation is like.

That must be about it for this week so I hope you all have a good week & keep well.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

That sounds like way too much homework for a Yr 3 boy! Mine don't have nearly that much. I'm glad the Maths is coming right now - it is hard work as a parent to get it all sorted out at home

Angela said...

Yes, I agree with Jenny, my son has just finished year 3, and that is ALOT of homework, especially if he is struggling. I hope things get sorted for you.