Second Grade

I love the picture of Vander in the background, looking so proud of his big sis.  One more year until he goes to kindergarten!

Annalee started second grade! I'm in denial. Not as much over her getting older as I am about summer being over. It seems like we were running, running the whole summer and never got enough time to relax. Nathan started a second job with intensive training, we had several exhausting trips, and there were so many unseasonably hot days that it kept us from doing all the things we wanted to do. I'm not ready for a schedule again!!

But Annalee was more than ready. We met her new teacher on Monday at the school's open house and I was disappointed to find that she did not get the teacher who had helped her so much last year. In first grade, she had been too advanced in reading and math to go with the other first grade groups when they broke up to work according to skill level. So her AMAZING first grade teacher had arranged with an AMAZING second grade teacher for Annalee to go with them. The second grade teacher was so kind and patient with Annalee, who was often very ungrateful for the special opportunity she'd been given because it meant that things weren't so easy anymore and she actually had to work! (Heh heh, sounds just like me when I was a kid!) If I were that teacher, I would have been like, "Fine! Go back to first grade! I have 25 second graders to worry about and I don't need more work!" But instead, she was so sweet. I was very impressed, considering that this was this teacher's first year of teaching and we'd had such a bad experience with a first-year teacher when Annalee was in kindergarten. So I'd really, really hoped Annalee would get to go with her.

Instead, the teacher we met on Monday night was...different. Where Annalee's first grade teacher had been sugar and spice and love, and her second grade mentor had been sweetness and excitement and Rah! Rah! Girl-Scout-camp enthusiasm! this teacher was...kind of laid-back and serious. Matter-of-fact. Not overly-friendly. She didn't seem that excited when I offered to help in the classroom--said she'd get back to me in a month or so when things had quieted down. I also noticed that when I told her about Annalee's reading and math, she responded by asking Annalee if she was good at helping other kids. That's not what I'm looking for. I don't want Annalee to end up as an assistant tutor. I want her to be challenged so she doesn't get lazy about hard things like I did.

But Annalee came home the next day full of energy and excitement over her first day. She LOVES her teacher. They had done all kinds of things, including a treasure hunt all over the school. And she was supposed to bring three things for show-and-tell the next day. Show and Tell! She had been asking me and asking me about that since we listened to an audiobook of Ramona Quimby this summer and she heard how Ramona got to bring things for show and tell. She wondered if she'd get to do it in second grade, or maybe third or fourth since she hadn't done it in first or kinder. I tried to explain that it didn't matter so much about the year as it did about what the teacher liked, and that these days a lot of teachers don't do show and tell because it takes up a lot of time in the class and they have more things to teach than they used to. So she was STOKED that they got to do show and tell. A letter came home with her the first day that talked about the teacher's goals for the students this year and I really liked the letter. It occurred to me that she might be one of those people that is better at expressing herself to adults in writing than in person. (How many internet friends do I have like that?) Also, she probably relates better with kids than adults, which I also understand from my time subbing or even teaching preschool. When it's just me and the kids, I'm free to be silly and fun. But if another adult is there, it makes me feel self-conscious.

So it looks like this may be a good year!