Some assorted Kid Notes that have been jotted down in recent weeks.
This is totally unofficial, and I base it without knowing anything about the rest of the school, but I’m declaring my girls the Reading Champions of St. P’s.
Second graders are given reading wheels during second semester they are required to complete. They contain 12 categories, with the entries each, that the kids have to read a book for. For example, two mysteries, two animal books, two books of poetry, and so on. C. was the first kid in her grade to complete hers and earn a week free from homework.
Next, the entire school had a reading challenge in March. Each day you wrote down how much you read and at the end of the month, you tallied it up and turned it in. For some reason it took over a month to get the results, but both M. and L. were winners for their classes. Each girl got their name announced to the entire school, got an out-of-uniform day, and earned ice cream at lunch.
C. did a fine job there as well, but unfortunately (for her) a girl in her class read almost as much as M. and kind of blew the rest of the second grade away.
The best part about the reading challenge was that L. called her shot. When the explanatory sheet came home in late February, she announced, “I’m going to win it!” It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.
I hope L. keeps her love of all things school-related going forward. A mom from her class told me one day that, when the kindergarteners received an assignment that was supposed to be done over a week, her son said, “L.’s probably going to have it done before the weekend is over.” The mom also said that her son is always talking about smart L. is.
Oh, she did have that project done before the weekend was over.
One more reading note. L. and I read together most nights before bed. Some nights she reads to me. But we’ve been getting into longer chapter books and I’ve been reading to her again when we work through those. We’re three books into the Ivy and Bean series, which we are both enjoying.
In one of the books, Bean is talking about her big sister, who is always bossing her around and meddling in her fun. L. leaned over to me, put her hand to my ear, and whispered, “I know how that feels!” then looked at me with a crazy grin. I tried not to react, but in seconds we were both laughing. M. was sitting a few feet away from us. She generally thinks you’re talking about her even if you’re not, so she immediately began whining that we were making fun of her.
“We’re not!” I lied as I tried to control my laughter.
“Then what are you laughing about?” she shrieked.
“Oh…just that crazy Bean!”
L. and I looked at each other and lost it again.
I mentioned in my post for C.’s birthday how sweet she can be. L. has a sweet side, too. Recently M. completed a big social studies project with three classmates. It involved about three weeks of work and two get-togethers outside of school to assemble the materials. The girls got a perfect score for their research and presentation.
The evening the grading sheet came home, I found a dollar sitting next to it on the kitchen counter. When I asked who the dollar belonged to, L. said, “I gave it to M. for doing such a good job on her project!”
Now, I think that’s just L. being sweet. But there is a small part of me that thought, “I wonder if M. heard that kids in her class get monetary rewards for good grades and told L. to give her a dollar so maybe S. and I would start giving them money when they bring home A’s.” I wouldn’t put it past them.
OK, these are turning out to be mostly about L.. Oh well.
I may have mentioned this one before, but back when M. was still playing volleyball, we were sitting in the school lobby one afternoon waiting for practice to start. That was also the first day of track practice, and those kids – fourth graders and up – were in the gym going through workouts. The gym teacher walked by us, looked at L., and said, “L., why aren’t you in there with them?”
She just grinned.
The kid’s built quite the reputation already.
C. and L. are still in the midst of their sports seasons. Both continue to do well. C. is in a four-game run where she has not made an out[1] and L. is scoring goals at will.
But kickball ended two weeks ago. St. P’s ended the season with a game against St. B’s, the school that had beat them 27–2 earlier in the year. If that wasn’t a tough enough match-up, had our girls somehow pulled out the win, they would have to play St. B’s again the next day to break a first-place tie to determine who went to the tournament.
St. P’s got St. B’s out 1–2–3 in the first, then scored three runs in the bottom of the inning. Much better start than the first game, when no one reached safely until the third inning.
But it didn’t last. Those St. B’s girls are damn good and won 19–6. The St. B’s mom who kept score with me said that grade is filled with super athletic girls. Funny how talent sometimes pools like that. Our girls have a handful of good athletes, some that are ok, and some that are just out there. But the grade behind them is crazy athletic. Apparently they went through their kickball season not only undefeated, but with most games ended early because of the run rule. I’ve seen those girls in the library and some of them tower above M. and some of her classmates.
Anyway, we’ll see if this is M.’s final year of kickball. She wants to run cross country in the fall, which will require some work in the summer. She’s never run more than around the block, so I’m not convinced A) she knows what she’s getting into and B) she’s capable of running that far yet.
This was also, likely, the last time this group of girls will play together. Fifth and sixth graders play together, and the best girls are often grouped together. We’ve reached the point where talent is going to start moving girls in different directions.
Big, fat, daddy jinx for tomorrow’s game right there! ↩