Third grade updates

Yep you read the title correct. Adi has skipped a grade and moved on to third grade this year. It all happened before I could wink my eyes. We have plans to R2I soon. Soon could be anywhere from six months to one and a half year. So, when I was enquiring about age vs grade terms at India I heard from multiple sources that Adi has a possibility to do third grade for her age so we thought why not give it a try if she can handle it.

The preparations started during early summer holidays. I spoke with some of her school parents to collect the syllabus for second grade, taught them to Adi, made her do the Brain quest second grade workbook,evaluated her confidence with second grade stuffs, convinced myself that she is comfortable with second grade syllabus and then decided to go ahead with third grade. We didn’t tell her anything until her school principal agreed for the move. When I approached them, her principal agreed with no issues as Adi was a consistent first honor roll student in first grade. Thanks to them.

It has been more than a month in third grade now and the girl is doing just great. Her daily work for home gets posted in school site in the morning every day. That helps me to plan ahead and we spend from 30 mins to one hour in the evening (Monday to Thursday) together to do and review those work. As per her school’s policy parents have to sign the homework. Her evening routine goes like this. After reaching home, get refreshed, watch 30 mins of TV with snacks/milk, do homework, eat dinner, play with appa (only if she is lucky and there is more time), brush, read and go to sleep. She understands the importance of academics and doesn’t expect me to be at the back of her for the homework time as it was till last year. Once, TV time is over, she comes to me with her book bag and laptop. I have added a bookmark for her homework site in our laptop. We sit together, she opens the browser, navigates to the site, reads the work one by one and does them. I just sit next to her with my own work to assist her in case of any doubts. Once she is done, I will review the work and sign it. At least I am happy she understands that amma is not against her playing and that she gets lot of free time if she finishes her work on time. I have rewarded her enough to make her realize this. Sometimes I let her plan the evening. Like, if she really wants to play then I let her play, she fixes the time and gets back to her work on time. Sometimes when I ask her to take it easy she replies with a serious look “Ammaaa are you kidding me? I had to make up for one whole year”..  I am not worrying much as long as she is aware of her responsibilities.  She has to deal with her teacher if she has not done her work and she understands this quite well. Her maturity amazes me at times. So, over all its going fine so far. Touch wood…

She has got four big text books this year for Reading, Math, Science and Social studies. Her teacher sent them home to cover and this girl understood it as “cover”. That she has to finish reading the whole book and drove us crazy over the weekend. She took a bottle of water, went into her room, closed the door, asked us not to disturb and read all the stories in English text book at one stretch. No one was ready to listen to me that by “cover” her teacher would have meant “wrapping”. This girl created such a ruckus that Amma was in tears to see her grand kid like this and gave me ear full. She was repeatedly telling Amma like “Ammachi I have to finish all these four books in this weekend”. You should have seen the drama between the two. My god. I right away emailed her teacher, confirmed that she meant wrapping and restored peace at home. Again, I spoke with her teacher in front of her as first thing on Monday morning and sorted it out. This girl I say…

Regarding after care classes we have registered her in art/dance/music along with chess this year. So, she gets to attend one class every day during the three hours (3-6pm) spent at after care. She is happy about this setup as she gets to meet her second grade friends at these classes and also gets time to play with them during after care.

We attended “back to school” night last month and her class teacher is very friendly. She explained to parents as what to expect this year and we got a glimpse of the class.

Leaving you all with some pictures and Adi’s classic

A day before school reopened I told Adi “Pappa you have to do good this year. I know its going to be tough but we will deal with it together. You should give your best. See only because you did good last year the principal had agreed to move you to third grade”. talk about positive vibes and all that. Little did I realize that I will burn myself. She thought for a while and said “Okay amma I will do my best but just because I am doing well you should not make me skip fourth grade and put me to fifth grade okay?”. Now, who would have thought like this? I promised her that this was only to keep her in par with Indian standards and we will never go through this again. My heart sinked and I was in total dilemma all though September but not anymore. She has got settled and doing quiet good as I expected.. Hope she will be soon ready to handle the Indian syllabus which I heard is quiet high in standards compared to the syllabus here.. Touchwood touchwood…

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