"I'm the 100% guy!"

I must first excuse myself should I seem as though I am bragging, but I'm sure you all will be just as thrilled as we are at Isiah's progress in school. And, even more awesome, his own apparent feelings of accomplishment in his academic achievement. Not that 'perfect scores' are Everything, but a sweet, kind boy with brains is a blessing...especially since we have many more years of school ahead of us.

In the past couple months, Isiah has been consistently receiving 100% on his weekly Spelling tests. Recently he's been Acing his practice test on Thursdays, and enjoying the reward of not having to take the test again on Friday; instead, getting to play on the classroom computer at that time of the day. The most surprising part of all of this was that spelling hadn't been our main focus during homework time. It's great to see to that he must be paying attention in class and has found a way to memorize that works for him.

Now, it's a matter of remembering the words and spelling

when it comes time to use them in his writing. After his first Parent-Teacher conference at the end of Fall, and reviewing his in class journal they write in following storytime, we realized his writing could use a bit more attention. That's when Don and I decided to structure our homework time a bit more and maintain consistency... He reads a book and then writes a few sentences about what happened in the book. It truly is amazing how a little practice and his efforts have improved his skill...sentences are no longer random, nor all sound the same, and ideas have begun to flow to create more of a paragraph. Isiah will be ready for those Second grade book reports before he knows it.

"Isiah 1-18-11

My Q Book

Little Q had a quarter. Then she bought a crown. She was a queen. At the end little q found a real queen."

He's always excited to finish up homework time with a homework worksheet or two that the teacher sends home. It's so cute! As his Kindergarten teacher recognized, Isiah also 'gets' Math. For a little while he wasn't doing so well on his tests; we realized it wasn't that he didn't understand, but that he wasn't adequately paying attention to the verbal instructions. Once he figured out the importance of that aspect...he's been the 100% guy in that area, too.

We are so proud of him!!!