My eldest.

I am not one to brag about my kids...but this one deserves some words of praise. We had parent teacher conferences yesterday and the teacher just raved over her. She and another little boy are the smartest in the class. They are the only ones in the AIG (Academically Intellectually Gifted) class which is the equivalent to APEX in TN. I was hoping that she would get in and apparently she has been going to the classes without me knowing it. Ha! I asked about it at meet the teacher and she told me a little about it.

She is also off the charts for reading. She was the only one in her class to score way over her grade level. She is off the charts on the testing material. Comprehension is the big thing for second grade reading and she is well above that level too. I asked what we needed to do to keep her improving and she said work on comprehension. So once we get back to normal as a family, at night when we read to her (usually Michael) he will have her write in a journal about what she read.

I knew she was already going to the accelerated reading program, called TDK I think...but the teacher asked permission to send her across the hall to another teacher for the rest of the year for reading. They put the advanced kids in the other teacher's class and the kids who need more attention in Ella Kate's class. She also mentioned another class but those teacher's decided not to go ahead with it as Ella Kate wouldn't see much of her original teacher.

They finished their math unit last Friday and took a big test on it and she was the only one to score 100.

So the girl has some things going for her. Her nose is always in a book. I found this pretty cool app on ITUNES called Epic...and thousands of books and I get weekly updates about what she read and how much she read. Pretty neato!

I relayed all the info to Michael last night and we are really proud of her! Hopefully she gets to stay in AIG as they do the actual testing for it in 3rd grade. The teacher seemed to think she wouldn't have any trouble staying in the group. I told the teacher that I have learned one of Ella Kate's weaknesses and that is NOT checking her work...which she is getting better at. When I go over her homework she has done something careless or she skipped an answer. So my goals with her are helping her write and spell better and to have her CHECK HER WORK!! Can't be giving points away!!

She is also getting close to testing for her orange belt!

So Ella Kate, when you read this...We are so proud of you and your accomplishments...you keep reading girl!