Jackson’s Second Parent/Teacher Conference
28 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Jackson Tags: acaii, Jackson, school
I’ve had so much going on in my head that I completely forgot to write about Jackson’s parent/teacher conference, which took place two weeks ago.
ACA II doesn’t give grades. The kids work on assessments and then we get detailed reports of how they’re doing.
“Jackson has followed routines and expectations very diligently. He continues to do well verbally and understanding concepts being presented. His challenge is organization and fine motor tasks… Jackson loses focus and interest in work when he has to use fine motor abilities to complete the task.”
Basically, if Jackson has to write, he loses focus. How ironic, dontcha think?
The teacher is concerned about his fine motor skills. Seeing as Jackson plays with Legos, tweezes, picks things up, and that his fine motor skills were always ahead of the game when he was a baby, Max and I think he just doesn’t like writing.
His perseverance needs some help too. He gets discouraged if he doesn’t think he can complete something, or if he doesn’t complete something by the end of the day. We could be contributing to that, I suppose… we try to emphasize that he just has to try his best, but that he really has to try his best.
Overall, Jackson is doing really well. He’s happy to be at school all day. He’s completing his tasks more often now. And everyone still wants to be his friend!
February Break is Over. Hooray!
27 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in routine Tags: Cassie, Friends, Jackson, school
I’ve been very fortunate to make some new friends at Jackson’s new school. Unlike my son, who is “a friend to all,” I’m not very good at making friends, so I was worried. But I differ from some of my new friends. Several of them lament the end of breaks. I am all too happy that break is over.
I love my son. Jackson doesn’t do well with unstructured time. I feel guilty for not being able to give Cassie or Jackson the appropriate amount of attention. I had Jackson alone for almost six years. The only time Cassie and I have alone is Jackson’s school time. Now that she’s four months old and capable of organizing her daytime sleep (according to Dr. Marc Weissbluth of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), I really want to get her on a nap schedule so she gets the sleep she needs.
When Jackson is home, Cassie does not have a routine. We had playdates on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She slept at the park while I was standing up rocking her twice. (And boy was that painful!) I don’t think she slept at all on Wednesday. What we do is all about Big Brother.
Of course, Big Brother doesn’t see it that way. We have to leave places early because of Baby Sister. We have to run errands to get Baby Sister’s formula, diapers, and “teeving toys.” We have to be quiet if Baby Sister is actually, by some miracle, taking a nap.
I’m not complaining, exactly. I love both of my children and I am glad to have both of them. It’s this illusion of balance. I really do feel that Cassie gets the short shrift, but Jackson’s life is impacted just enough to make him feel marginalized. Meanwhile, I’d just like to play with my kids while keeping the house relatively clean.
What? It could happen.
Jackson’s First Parent/Teacher Conference
03 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Jackson, school Tags: Jackson, school
On Friday, we had Jackson’s first parent/teacher conference at ACA II. I could write lots of glowing praise for him. Instead, I’ll just post a few tidbits that friends and family might find interesting.
- My favorite quote: “Jackson is enjoyable to have in our classroom. He is a good friend to all.”
- Jackson needs some help with his fine motor skills, especially when it comes to writing. He needs to be more careful when he writes and draws shapes.
- Jackson “does well thinking mathematically and is very logical in arriving at his answer.” Apparently, one of the hallmarks of a logical/mathematical learner is that they have a reason for everything, and will negotiate anything. That’s Jackson!
- He got favorable marks in all of his assessment areas. They don’t do grades, but indicate if he is performing at, above, or below the level he should.
- “Jackson is very focused and is not distracted easily. He is attentive in large groups as well as independent work.” In a world where so many boys are labeled “ADD” or “ADHD” it’s wonderful to have a teacher point out that my son can focus.
And… Jackson gets to start the Young Six program on Monday! He’ll go to school all day two days per week for awhile, then three, then all four. (All of Primary has half days on Fantastic Friday.) He’s been asking since mid-September if he can go to school all day and do more of his Montessori works. I’m afraid he’s forgotten his multiplication. His teacher was very amenable to the idea. In fact, it was her idea to start Monday instead of waiting for January.
Boy am I glad I got that Star Wars lunch box on Woot!. 
She Didn’t Believe Me
13 Oct 2011 3 Comments
in conversation Tags: conversation, Jackson, school, transracial adoption
My Dad volunteers at Jackson’s school on Thursday mornings. He gardens. When I picked Jackson up today, I asked him if he saw Grandpa Bob.
Jackson: Yep. I sure did!
Me: Was that fun?
Jackson: An elementary kid didn’t believe he was my Grandpa.
Me: Why not? (I figured I knew why not, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.)
Jackson: She thought my whole family was brown.
We talked for a bit about the fact that there’s another brown girl in his class who has a white Mommy. (For that matter, there’s another brown boy in his class who has a white Mommy.) I pointed out that if Jackson still lived with S, his grandfather would be white, because S’s father is white.
Jackson: I know.
Me: How did that make you feel?
Jackson: Sad. And angry. She just wouldn’t believe me!
Me: Well, you know Grandpa Bob is your Grandpa, and Grandpa Bob knows Grandpa Bob is your Grandpa, and that’s what matters.
I’m really surprised that the elementary girl argued with him. I could see being surprised – a few of Jackson’s friends have asked me why we’re white and Jackson’s brown. Jackson likes to tell them that “my birthmudder” or “my other mudder” is brown, and we say he was adopted. The kids accept that and move on.
Jackson couldn’t recall exactly what was said during the argument. I’d like to know. I’d like to know if it was long or short. It could have happened during a time when they weren’t supposed to be talking at all, so there would be the additional anger of being reprimanded by a teacher for talking if that happened.
We live in such a diverse place, and the school is really diverse, with a lot of seemingly mixed race families, that I’m puzzled by the girl’s insistence that my Dad couldn’t be Jackson’s Grandpa.
I have responses prepared for a lot of common situations, but not this one. It seems to me that the best thing to say is what Jackson said: “Yes he is.” and leave it at that.
Thoughts?
First Day of School: Kindergarten Edition
17 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in school Tags: kindergarten, photos, school
Today was Jackson’s first day of Kindergarten! He’s officially in school now. We picked out his first-day-of-school shirt last week. Initially, I said he didn’t need shoes, but after soccer this Saturday, I noticed that his shoes from this spring are a little rattier than I remembered. We went to Kohl’s and bought him his first pair of tie shoes!
Jackson hates me taking pictures of him, so all I got was attitude.
In the Driveway
Outside the Classroom
The shirt will be the picture day shirt too.
School starts at 8:15. Normally, Max will drop him off. Today, I woke up at 7:30 to be there too. The teachers were kind and let us take a few pictures in the classroom.
In the Classroom
The school had some snacky breakfasty foods for the parents, so we went over. I said Hello to the two people I know there. Max and I weren’t feeling very social, so we went home. I immediately took a nap. Max had to go back to pick Jackson up at 10:00. Normally, he’ll be in school ’til lunch time.
We have Jackson’s assessment on Friday. They’ll put him into his math, reading, and science groups, and they’ll determine what kind of learner he is. The real school week starts on Monday!
There are about 20 kids in “Primary”. There are kids who are in their first years of Kindergarten and there are also kids who did Kindergarten last year but aren’t quite ready for First Grade yet. Jackson said he made friends with two of them, the “young sixes”. But he doesn’t remember their names.
He said his first day of school was “Great!” Here’s hoping that the rest of them are great too!
Last Day
28 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in school Tags: photos, preschool, school
This is Jackson when he started preschool:
Jackson's First Day of School
It was July 7, 2008.* He was just shy of 2-1/2. My MOMS Club friends had all told me not to put him in preschool, that he would spend enough of his life in school. So, we tried day care first, with disastrous results. After Jackson got to preschool, he flourished.
We all made new friends – Anika, Nadia, John-Samuel, Cassidy, Logan, DJ, Gillian, D & Persephone to name but a few. We loved this preschool. Jackson had 3 of the same teachers for all 3 years he was there.
On June 28, Jackson and 9 of his friends “graduated”.
Jackson "Think Think Think"
The robes were just for the pictures. Here’s Jackson getting his Certificate of Completion from his teacher, Ms. Dore.
Jackson Gets His Certificate
The following day, there was a big party with a jumpy and cupcakes. Many of his friends had their last days that day. About half of the kids in the school leave for the summer. Most of them return in September. This year, the preschool had the largest graduating class since we got there. I wasn’t supposed to work this summer, and Jackson’s last day was supposed to be the last day of June. But I am working (2 contracts, in fact, but that’s another post) so Jackson stayed in for the month of July.
Today, July 28, 2011, was Jackson’s last day of preschool.
Jackson's Last Day of School
He’s 5-1/2 now. He reads a little bit. He does math. His vocabulary is huge. (Well, it was huge when he was 2-1/2 too.) I just can’t believe we’re saying good-bye to this place. I had hoped that Jackson’s baby sister would be ready to go here by now. But life had other plans.
His teachers wanted hugs. And then some of his friends wanted in too.
Hugs for Jackson
All of the kids pictured are graduates.
I managed not to cry until I had to say good-bye to Miss Devie. Miss Devie was the 2′s & 3′s teacher when Jackson started. She’s the teacher who is there most often in the afternoons. She’s actually Jackson’s favorite teacher. When we were writing thank you notes Jackson said, “When she was happy with me, it helped me feel better, like I was being a good boy.”
So when I hugged her, I started to cry. And then I hugged Ms. Dore and cried. I was rather melancholy all afternoon.
We’re going to miss this place.
* July 7 is a somewhat auspicious day for me. I started working at Netscape on July 7, 1997 and at Oracle NEDC on July 7, 1999.
The Sad State of Kindergarten
07 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in school Tags: kindergarten, school
Getting into the Antioch charter schools requires winning the lottery. We were lucky #21 for ACA II. If we hadn’t gotten into ACA II, Jackson would have gone to the elementary school closest to us. There, they split up kids based on “ethnicity” – that is, they want an equal number of English and non-English speaking kids in each class.
We got Jackson’s kindergarten enrollment info from the not-charter school. This is how it read:
IMPORTANT – HELP YOUR CHILD LEARN THESE FACTS
Please practice the following with your child now and during the summer to help prepare him/her to be ready for Kindergarten.
- What is your name?
- Please write it
- How old are you?
- Count as high as you can
- Know these colors: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, and gray
- Name these shapes: Circle, square, triangle, rectangle, diamond, oval
- Name the letters
- Extra practice on these letters: A C L M D J k r t s B e G H
- Number recognition (0-10)
- Teach your child to grip their pencil correctly.
Jackson has known his full name since he was at least 3. He’s been able to write it, albeit a little backwards, for more than a year. He’s known his age since he was 2. He can also tell you how much older or younger any other child is in relation to his age.
Jack can count to 999. We did it once on a car trip. He can also count by 10s and 100s. He gets confused by 1000. He goes from 999 to 1,000,000.
As for his colors, he started learning them before he was 18 months old. He learned his colors from the garbage cans. Jackson was obsessed with garbage, and we used to follow the garbage truck every Thursday, all over the neighborhood. The cans are blue, green, and brown, so we started with those. Then we moved on to the houses and plants. When he started preschool, the director pointed out a work that the younger kids did to learn their colors. Jack – who was not quite 2-1/2 at the time – said, “I know my colors!” Miss Ramona said, “You do? What color am I wearing?” Jackson replied, “Purple.” Miss Ramona was impressed. She said a lot of kids didn’t know purple.
As for shapes, he began learning them around age 2, and had them down by age 3. He even knows 3D shapes. I love Montessori!
Jackson has been able to recognize letters since he was 18 months old. He didn’t get really solid on them until about age 3 though. I don’t know when he started to recognize numbers. He’s always been better with them than with letters.
Yeah, I think Jackson would be bored out of his skull in typical Kindergarten. But what’s sad is, there are kids who don’t know any of this. They couldn’t recognize their names if they saw them (which Jackson could do by age 3). They don’t know the “harder” colors, like gray. They don’t know their alphabet. I just found out that Kindergarten isn’t mandatory in CA, so some kids go into 1st grade without knowing any of this.
*sigh*
Family History: My Favorite Year
27 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in family history Tags: mommy, school
This week, I decided to write the Family History Tuesday post a little closer to Tuesday. This week’s prompt:
What was your favorite school year ever? What about that year made school/education so good for you?
Kindergarten was probably my favorite. I loved Kindergarten! I learned to read. I had a best friend (Dawn Lynn Workman). We had a great playground with tricycles and swings. My teacher, Mrs. Ferguson, I remember thinking that she was the best teacher ever.
I went to public school – Gregory Gardens. But, the next year, my parents put me in Catholic school – Christ the King. I hated it. I refused to say the alphabet in the mornings because “only babies did that”. I already knew most of what they were trying to teach me. I’m sure I behaved like a brat, but apparently no one knew what to do. I begged my mother to put me back in public school, where they had a gifted/talented program. I didn’t have many friends, and, this being a small school, I was with the same people for 8 long, mostly horrendous years.
There were a few bright spots. Fifth grade wasn’t all bad. We had Mrs. Dorsey, who really seemed to like me and tried to help keep me entertained by learning. We got to do a real report – our state report. I wrote about Pennsylvania, where my mom was born. (My sister copied the report two years later. And yes, my mom knew she did it.) In sixth grade, Liz Lampert joined our class, and she became my friend, along with Linda Silva, who had always been my best friend. I liked our teacher, Mrs. McCrory, a lot, and we didn’t have to do a science fair project. (I hate science fairs.)
I liked high school considerably more, because I went to public school and took drama. Still, I’m not sure I could classify any of my high school years as the “best”. Maybe sophomore year, because we did Godspell, my first real musical. I had a lot of great friends, the greatest of whom I do keep in touch with. Junior year was pretty cool. I got a car.
I remember that, at freshman orientation, we saw this video of a comedian who said, “The high school years are the best years of your life.” I completely disagree. College – the college years are the best years of your life. OK, fine, they were the best years of my life. Sure, I did some really stupid stuff. I had very little money. I worked insanely hard and didn’t have a lot of time to explore the place I lived. I never got on the Scotch n Soda Board of Directors, and I never got the roles I really wanted. Oh, and I almost killed myself. But, I met my husband. I got an incredible education. (How I wish I were doing more with it!) I really learned how to be independent. I took a lot of road trips. I got an internship with Microsoft. College was a truly amazing time.
Family History Tuesday: Education
16 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in family history Tags: college, high school, school
Designz By DeDe has posted another Family History Tuesday question. (I’m kind of liking these.)
- What schools have you attended?
- What education have you received?
- Is there something you would like to study now?
I went to Gregory Gardens kindergarten. It was a public school, and I loved it! I learned to read. Unfortunately, the school closed due to budget cuts, and I went over to…
Christ the King School. Catholic school. The first graders were just learning to read, while I had mastered it. I refused to recite the alphabet at the beginning of class because that was for babies. I hated CTK. As an adult, I can see that some of the problems I had there were based on my somewhat bratty behavior. However, I wasn’t skinny and pretty. I was fat. I couldn’t play sports. I hated recess. I was incredibly smart, and there weren’t any advanced courses for me to take. I had the same kids in my class year after year, and none of them really liked me, and I didn’t like them. The teachers got annoyed with me for trying to one-up them. I had an awful elementary and junior high school experience.
Fortunately, I went back to public school for high school. College Park High School was, at the time, one of the ten best schools in the Bay Area. I had a hard time finding my niche academically, but once I got into the advanced courses, I did better. I found lots of friends, and I’m still friends with the ones who were most important to me. I took a lot of Drama classes. Craig Houston Brewer, who directed Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson, was a teacher and director. All the girls had huge crushes on him. I remember telling him that, and he blushed like a girl. It was fun. Overall, I actually liked high school. I don’t have a lot of regrets from that period of my life.
My first choice college was UCLA, but I didn’t get into the theatre program. Carnegie Mellon University offered me a great grant, so I decided to go there. I was insanely homesick my first semester, and even got the transfer application for the UC (University of California) system. However, towards the end of my first semester, I got really involved in Scotch n Soda and found friends. I still wanted to be an actor at that point, so I tried out for the College of Fine Arts – again. I did it my sophomore year as well, and I might have actually done it for junior year. Somewhere along the way, I knew I wasn’t going to be an actor. At the end of my freshman year, I applied for and got into the new Bachelor of Humanities and Arts program. Ours was the first class to have gone through the whole program. It was great! I admit, I chose it mostly because I didn’t have to take Calculus, but the program was really good for me. I got to take a lot of different classes with amazing professors. I got to create my own major, do an honors thesis…
I loved college. I miss it. I do have regrets, most of them involving things I wish I had done. Gone traying down Schenley Hill. Built a snowman. Paid more attention in certain classes. Not dated one of my students. Applied for the HCI or the Entertainment Technology programs. Taken more advantage of all the stuff there is in Pittsburgh. I miss it. It all went by in a blink, really. As difficult as that time was, it was still the greatest time of my life.
I do want to change careers, entirely. A friend of mine has me thinking about adoption law. Maybe, after we do adopt again, and both kids start school, maybe Mommy will go and try and be a lawyer. I do wish I had gotten a graduate degree. I feel it really would help me. Of course, at the time, I had no money to go to school and I was offered insane amounts of money to be a tech writer. So… priorities.
