My Madeleine Girl

We recently had our fall parent/teacher conference at Madeleine's school. I always look forward to this time, because while I know that we have an amazing little girl, it's always nice to have someone else brag on her. :)

Second grade has been a bit of an eye-opener to us. For the first time, she has nightly homework. And, while most nights it's only a 2-5 minute math sheet, there have been nights that she's had almost an hour by the time we do a reading book/response (20ish minutes), math homework, (5 minutes) and then our spelling words (30 minutes). This is most often on Thursday nights since spelling tests are on Fridays. The spelling tests have gotten HARD this year with her having to both spell the word right and also put it in the right catagory. We get 20 words on Mondays and another 20 on Thursdays to learn. Yikes! The first couple of tests were tough for her, but she quickly found her stride and was back to her "A" game! Mrs. L said that this was normal for most kids.

We found out that Madeleine is in both the highest reading and math classes this year. They've been doing ability grouping in literacy since kindergarten, but this is the first year for math. She's excelling in both. We got to see her report card at the conference and I was so proud of her -- mostly "E's" and a few "V's." This year they get a letter grade -- E=Excellent (95-100%) and V=Very good (90-94%).

Mrs. L. told us that she'd given her reading class which is the highest literacy class their first reading/writing prompt a few weeks earlier. She said this was the first time that any of the kids had seen anything like this and they expect them to struggle with it. Well, our Madeleine got the ONLY "E" in the whole 2nd grade. Mrs. L said she did amazing on it! It's no surprise because she writes all the time and her teacher even commented on that. She'd brought her chapter book she's writing to show the class a few weeks earlier.

We didn't meet with her math teacher, Mrs. S, this time. But, we know she's doing great in there! She got a 97% on their end of quarter test. :)

Madeleine never has to "move her card" and her teacher said she's a model student, she wishes she had a class full of her, etc, etc. :) I love hearing all of it!

This year, Madeleine is doing "art club" again. She loves the days she gets to stay late and make all kinds of fun crafty things. It's fun to watch her grow and develop into her own person and see her talents coming out.

Madeleine is so well liked by everyone in her classes. I love the days when I get to take her to school -- all the kids run up and hug her. One day last week we were early and they were just lining up to go to class. She didn't want me to walk her up -- sniff, sniff-- but, as they were leaving, I saw her let another little girl in front of her in line. Then the little girl turned around and hugged Madeleine. Madeleine's school is full of diversity -- with a lot of the kids there being from lower-income/lower-class families. And, I love love love that Madeleine doesn't see any of that. She only sees her friends and who they are never what they have. I pray that she will forever be this way and I feel so convicted that we made the right choice to drive the extra distance to get her not only a stellar academic education, but also these experiences that will stay with her as she grows.