Third grade evaluation

To my fabulous kid,

Although your teachers could not come right out and say it, my motherly instincts are telling me they have joined the Ava Fan Club.

I swear I think they had to look long and hard to find things that could remotely be construed as constructive criticism. 

Here's what they said, paraphrased:

+ You are an enormous bundle of energy in a tiny frame.  I shared with them my Aladdin analogy:
"Enormous colossal power; itty-bitty lamp."   They agreed and wrote that down to remember.

+ You're great at starting a task and focusing on it through completion.

+ Your math skills are great, not only do you grasp concepts quickly and correctly, you adapt one concept to another example.

+ You ask really good, thought-provoking questions in class and have become less shy about speaking up.

+ You help other kids.  You were paired up with another girl for Writer's Workshop and helped her come up with a story to write. 

+ You're not worried or obsessed with if you're liked by the other kids, and consequently, play with whoever wants to play, or just play by yourself.  Case in point - at recess you started hula-hooping by yourself. Another girl joined you after a while.  A couple weeks pass and now all of the third grade girls (5 of you) have formed with your asst. teacher a "Hula Hoop Club" that is girls-only, except once a month boys can join.

+ You're creative, inventive, eager, and enthusiastic. 

+ Here's the fun constructive bits.  Sometimes you get so convinced that you are right, that you have a hard time letting go to see the correct method.  Daddy and I suggested that your teachers try negotiating with you, showing you their way along side yours and compare.  They liked that, I'm grateful to say.  They also said that sometimes you are so motivated to do a science experiment that you aren't willing to outline your method for scientific testing.  Daddy and I got the message - slow down!    So we are taking that to heart and we're going to try slowing down too.

+ Reading.  Here's the funny part.  What they said is that the books you like to read (Ivy & Bean & the Fairies Series) is actually one step below your actual reading level.  You also "read" the books quickly, but miss many details by going too fast.  There's that slow down theme again!  I read a lot, and I read fast, and I thought about how many details I miss because I want to get to the action.  I'm learning to read slower as I'm writing my book because thinking of the right adjective for a sentence gives me appreciation for the painstaking effort of other authors finding the write adjective or verb. 

We're so thrilled you love school again, love reading again, and have no reluctance getting out the door in the morning.  Sure, the public school price tag was nice, and even the parochial school price tag was less than our independent school now, but stoking the fire of your desire to learn for likely the rest of your life will be a gift, I'm sure, that yields dividends greater than my shares of Apple stock.

I love you.  You make me proud, every single day.

Mommy