Maternity Monday: Striped Button-Up Dolman Maternity Top

Did y’all get end of the year parent-teacher conferences? We thought there’d be one but there’s 2 weeks left of school and no sign of it. Would be nice to get a little wrap-up chat.

A mama can dream right? And I’m dreaming of taking my 20 month old to France for three weeks-ish next June. Mostly in Provence and a few days in Paris. My vision is mostly countryside hotels, maybe visit a cute village in the morning, spend the afternoon toddling about the hotel grounds and swimming, dinner early and casual, room with a balcony or terrace so mama can have rosé outside post bedtime. I want to plan it now because, well, I just do! But of course I don’t actually know what my precious angel will be like at 20 months. Has anyone travelled with a noodle this age? Thoughts? It’s just me and the bub.

Help me use my words properly to have a productive conversation with my kids’ elem principals. I asked for a meeting because I feel like my kid is in the donut hole of math where she’s not mastering concepts on her own, but also not literally failing. I know that’s the standard for public school but she wants to do better. I’ve met with the teacher and the school’s math coach, and even reached out to the district math coordinator. Everyone has great suggestions and offers, then never does anything they say they will do.

Examples:

– At our first parent teacher conference this year, the teacher showed me a recent test (assessment) where my kid got about a 74%. She said not to worry, that was about on par with the rest of the class. I…worried a bit and started asking my kid about assessments etc. but….

– work is never sent home (apparently as a policy? idk). I virtually met with the 4th grade teacher and asked for my kid’s tests to be sent home. She agreed to send a copy home (apparently they are kept with the math coach?). Literally every month I email her asking if there have been any tests/assessments and to please send them home. It takes several back-and-forths to eventually get it by email or sent through my kid at which point they are like 2 units past the test so when I review with my kid, it’s ancient history.

– My kid clearly is not absorbing stuff the way it is taught. She’s getting scores in the 70-85%. On paper, it just looks like a bunch of careless errors but when you talk to her, she clearly doesn’t understand how to answer what’s being asked, or is having issues attending to the multi-step problems. That’s fine, I can help with 4th grade math! I just needed some idea of what they were learning and ideally some practice type work to help her build confidence. Our district policy is no homework. I looked up the math program online and tried to get a copy of the homework book that is part of the Bridges to Math set (but not used since it’s no-homework). It’s for teachers only, but they connected me with the district math coordinator who was lovely and said each school has access to this homework book. I asked the teacher, who is young and new, and she said she didn’t have it. So I called back the district person, who said she emailed the teacher who could print me off copies each week and she agreed to do this (FWIW, this is silly, I told her that sounded like a burden and I was happy to just take a copy of the unit or the book or whatever and use it as necessary, she said no problem, she’d be happy to). We got ONE set of worksheets home and every time I ask, my response is that she’s working on it.

– The 4th grade teacher sent a survey home to parents asking what we need to help our kids. EVERYONE I TALKED TO (n=9 of the parents!) said they asked for homework sheets (graded or ungraded, required or not). They sent optional homework home for ONE week, my kid happily did the entire packet in 2 afternoons over ice cream. That was in march. I asked about more homework and was told they were working on a new packet. That was….in April.

– I wanted to circumvent reliance on the school entirely, so I spoke with the math coach again and got the 4th grade progression/syllabus. However, the syllabus is in elem-math-speak not in layperson’s terms so it was tricky to figure out what type of practice sheets would be helpful for each unit. I ended up getting the previous version of the 4th grade Bridges math curriculum (off ebay where you don’t need teaching credentials!) , cross walking the tables of contents, and getting some practice pages that way. My kid’s performance spiked! She happily did a couple worksheets each week, or taught me what they were learning, “assigned” them to me, and corrected them in a fun purple pen. THEN! They stopped following the set curriculum and just took some detour. I just can’t keep up and I’m not a teacher so….

– I asked around about a math tutor. Lo and behold, it turns out that SIX KIDS in her class have private math tutors or are going to a math tutoring type place. I only asked 9 parents (friends of my kid or friends that have kids in the class and I know a sibling). NONE of these kids get pull out math intervention and all of the families have the same concerns I do.

That last item was when I decided to ask for a meeting with the principal; something is not right if nearly a third of the class is getting outside tutoring IN ADDITION to the kids that are being pulled out in school for extra help.

So, how do I say “what’s going on with math this year and how can I make sure my kid is learning what she needs to so she doesn’t crash and burn in middle school? Also, please let me know what is reasonable to expect from teachers and where I just need to solve this myself. Finally, do you find it reasonable/acceptable that a third of the class has in-house math support and a full second third is getting tutored privately because they are also unhappy with their kids getting 75%s on assessments? And is this a teacher problem or a school problem or just my kid?”

FWIW, I have an older daughter who is just exceptional as a student and this was never an issue. She’s a current 7th grader with a 100% average in math. Even she had some issues in 3rd/4th grade where the school’s standardized test scores were well below district average. She was the only kid in her entire 3rd grade class to “pass” state testing- they ALL “failed” fractions (apparently they got to that unit after the state testing?) but she got every other question right so ended up passing. Nobody else did. I also have a younger son so am definitely invested in solving this longer term.

My 8 year old DD finally learned to ride a bike this weekend!!! I am so proud of her, I honestly teared up. It’s been a THING in our house for a while so this is major.

My actual reason for posting: she’s a tall 8 year old at 4’6.5”. Her current bike was purchased several inches ago and is very too small. I think she needs a 24” now. Where do you buy new bikes? We’re ok buying new bc little sister is behind her and will use it too. Nothing good on marketplace in our vicinity but will keep watching that too.

Is Guardian all it’s cracked up to be? We have an REI local to us and have purchased co-op brand in the past but it’s $$$ and unsure that’s necessary.

The riding story: She has perfectly fine balance (she skis and skates very well) but was just SO in her head about it when younger, then as she got older she was embarrassed she couldn’t ride it and just gave up when the Nextdoor neighbors several years her junior started riding without training wheels. Though, she recently started bombing around the neighborhood on her Razor scooter and I think she got a lot of confidence suddenly, so much that she walked up to DH yesterday afternoon, asked for her (too small!) bike and just got on and off she went!! It’s the little things but man I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of her. Her knees were bowed out because it’s so small but she did it!!

Thoughts on wearing a crop top on a field trip as a chaperone? Does it matter if it’s stylish and wearer is fit?

Wasn’t me but very on trend/designer wearing mom.

I think I land on not for me, but fine for her, she looked good.

Just a vent… My SIL is SO ridiculous. I can’t post the details because I think there’s a chance she reads here and would recognize the situation but she’s so self-centered and my husband and I are both completely fed up with her behavior but reluctant to cut ties completely because she’s the only bio aunt/.uncle our kids have.

I have returned from the 11 day Disney World trip and we all survived. AMA.