Dancing

Nyla had her dance recital this week and while we were waiting Bohdin and Cora wanted me to take silly pictures of them.



The dance recital was mostly little kids.  Little kids can't dance well but they are very cute.  Nyla's class was the only one with a tap routine for the younger kids.  There were some high school kids who tapped as well. The teachers were on stage but well off to the side doing the routine also.  This seemed to distract most of the kids because they looked at the teacher.  Maybe it would have been even worse without that. 









Buddy recorded it on the cell phone.  http://youtu.be/d5V5sOySoFc

Friday was the last day of school and since the kids got out early we visited an iris farm in Missouri.  There weren't as may irises as we expected.  Only one area had a lot of irises blooming together.  It was still a nice trip. 
















Report cards came home on Friday along with the results of the STAR test.  Bohdin had been tested in January and again in May.  I already knew Bohdin's reading results because his teacher told another parent who then told me.  Her daughter was upset that Bohdin was a better reader and the teacher reassured her that they were at the same level.  The reason Bohdin is at the same level is his scores went down between January and May.  The test had him reading at a 7th grade level instead of 8th.  His math scores did go up a bit but we worked on math at home so I expected that.  He moved up into a greater than fifth grade level for math.  The funny thing about that is he does third grade math at home.  I wonder if the test is too easy.  He aced the reading section the first time and missed one question the second time.

I was really mad on Friday that the school knew that he needed harder work.  Part of the test results showed what would be a suitable level of instruction and neither was second grade work.  I've come to terms with it.  Challenging smarter kids is outside of the scope of their ability.  On top of that most parents don't want their child to be challenged.  I talked to a lot of parents about that this week and all told me they didn't want their child to be challenged.  I don't agree with that approach for Bohdin.  He needs to be challenged.  I'm reminded of his swim coach in Kentucky who allowed him to keep his head above water because he didn't like getting his face wet.  His first swim coach here in Kansas physically forced his head under water and also dunked him in a sense to show him that he could do it.  She was right.  He could do it but he needed somebody to challenge him.  That's not something a school can provide.  He needs to be homeschooled. 

Nyla's test results were different.  They do a different sort of test for kindergarteners.  She is progressing and school was working out okay for her.  She's the type of student that the school handles pretty well.  She wants to be homeschooled though.  She doesn't like how the other kids behave.