Bragging on Zachary :)

Some of you are aware that Zach came home from school on Friday with a great progress report (A) in math and less than stellar grade (D) in language arts. Well, we don't expect him to be a perfectionist, but a D is rather unacceptable as we know he is capable of doing so much better. Well after a Sunday of stern discussion with him about diligence at completing and turning in assignments even in subjects that he finds boring and an email to his teacher expressing our surprise at his grade and concern, good things happened. His teacher called me Monday morning. Apparently they have only had a few graded assignments this quarter given all of the snow days. He accidentally threw one of his completed assignments in the trash when he was cleaning out his desk, instead of turning it in. Hence the low grade. Zach has not been ver diligent about using his folders to keep work organized.  His teacher has been letting him work on redoing his assignment during recess, and now he is back to A status. Yay!  She said that, despite this latest hiccup, both his behavior and academics are much improved. He has been very attentive in class, more focused, and respectful of his fellow students. Additionally he is much improved in the areas in which he was struggling in Language arts. So YAY!  Also, the best news was received yesterday when he passed his SRI reading test to move on to fourth grade and even blew it out of the water by over 100 points (which indicates he is almost at a 5th grade reading level)!  Such an improvement over mid year. We knew he could focus and do it and are so proud of him! He gets to choose where we have a celebration dinner tomorrow night after his soccer practice.

We are looking forward to a busy spring. Zach is again playing soccer. Both Zach and Ash will start swimming lessons at the end of March. We still have yet to figure out what we are doing for spring break. The current thinking is a road trip to Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon and meteor crater, but we haven't decided yet. I have been so swamped with work, I have not had much time to process. Part of me wouldn't mind a spring break boing and close to home. Conflicted!

In the meantime, this weekend I have two races, a 10K trail run on Saturday followed by a 1/4 marathon trail run on Sunday. I am not as nuts as Tracy who is running a trail 25k on Saturday followed by. a trail half marathon on Sunday :) I am proud of her though even if she is nuts!