Kaylen Feb2011 Update

Kaylen had a great 8th birthday last month. We celebrated with a slumber party Friday night (her actual birthday). She invited two of her friends to spend the night. We took them out for pizza, rented movies, and there was lots of giggling, and I don’t think much sleeping – at least until near midnight. And they were up before 7 am!Over the weekend we also celebrated with family, by going bowling and having cake and ice cream afterwards at our house. The bowling alley in town is pretty old and the lanes are pretty crooked, but I think everyone had fun anyway. Even Elijah tried rolling his own ball without the “hill” helper – so funny!Kaylen’s doing great in school. Her parent-teacher conference was Tuesday evening. As we were well aware, she is reading well above her grade level, and is doing very well in Math as well, where they’re now working on numbers up to 10,000, working on fractions, area/perimeter calculations, and multiple-digit addition and subtraction. We taught her how to do the borrowing and carrying at home, as she was always ending up 10 off in her answers. Sometimes to us parents, this new-fangled way of doing math bugs me, but at least we’re here to teach her how to do these things when she doesn’t learn it at school.

The only areas in school where Kaylen gets "Inconsistent" marks are: "Works well in a group", "Works without disturbing others", and "Controls Talking". Well, we all knew she was a talker! That, and the first one has to do with a little bit of always wanting her way, not taking turns going first, and not blowing up when things don't go just right. Ah, yes, that sounds like her.

Socially, Kaylen seems to be doing better this year getting along with friends. She has a few groups that she sort of rotates playing with – or at least that’s how she describes it. She’ll play with two friends one week, and then the next day/week, she’ll play with two different ones, or maybe the next week play with yet a third pair. It seems odd to me, but apparently there’s always one in the group that can’t get along with one in the other group. Of course, it’s never Kaylen that’s not working hard to get along with others, but I know her personality is still somewhat self-centered, so when she talks about the girls getting into “fights”, I try to talk her through how they could have resolved things peacefully instead of having it end in a, “xxx isn’t my friend anymore” situation. I know the guidance counselor works with kids in groups on some of these things also, which I think has been good for Kaylen to discuss with other kids in a group. And, is it just me, or is the “cattiness” of girls happening at a much younger age than it happened when I was young?! Oh boy, this makes me scared for her teen years. She’s only in 2nd grade!

At home, Kaylen’s typical household chores are loading/unloading the dishwasher, helping with breakfast or pouring the milk for supper, and folding hers (and sometimes Josephine’s) laundry. She loves to read books, watch movies, play video games. She loves to draw and write, and she also likes to organize tea parties or playing school or house with Elijah and Josephine – anything where she can be in charge of something is fun for her - she's a natural leader. :)We had a taste of warm weather last week, but we’re all looking forward to spring, so we can get back out on the bikes, on the trampoline, or take walks to the park.