ssp's

OK, so I am trying to keep my goal of a blog post a day.  Since I didn't think of this resolution/goal until yesterday, I didn't do any posts this week.  Looking back though, there are some blog worthy things.

For instance, SSP's were this week.  Back in my day (oh, that sounds creepy), they were called Parent Teacher Conferences.

Rewind a few months ago to the last SSP's.  They weren't great.  In fact, they were down right frustrating.

Sam's grades (which are usually well above grade level) had dropped a lot, and I was talked to about his behavior, which has never happened before, with any of my kids.  He wasn't being bad, but he was being way too silly and getting off task.  I was pretty upset.

We came home and set up a system with Sam, where he would be held accountable for his behavior each week, and be rewarded or punished, depending on a report from the teacher.  We also made some changes with his homework.

William's conference was ok, but he was too shy during testing, so his test scores were low.

Mary had a good SSP, but she got a B in math and completely fell apart.  We also had to talk a lot about her anxiety with school.  Her teacher was concerned, and so was I.

I came away from those conferences feeling very low as a mother, and very frustrated. 

We have all worked very hard these past few months to make some changes.
Sam had his behavior changes, and I did a TON of homework with him.
Mary got a math tutor, and has been working through her anxiety better.
William has been doing more homework at home, and I have talked to him a lot about how to take an oral test, and to not be scared.

SSP's this week proved that hard work can pay off.

Sam's behavior percentage went from 76% up to 91%!  His grades had gone up almost triple, and he had passed off over 4 levels with reading.

Mary got straight A's, and the highest marks for behavior and responsibility.  She is even going to run for 5th grade president next week!

William took his oral tests the right way, and we found out that he is already at 1st grade levels in every subject.  He got a 33 in reading and writing.  Grade level for kindergarten is 17.  He can also count to 40 in Spanish, and have a small conversation.

This was a big lesson to all of us about hard work, being willing to make changes, and sticking to it.

Good job kiddos!