Taylor's First Day of 3rd Grade

This is terribly late as Taylor is several weeks into 3rd grade. Better late then never!

Brian and I are keeping close tabs on 3rd grade this year as they are now the only grade in the school not"grouping" according to learning levels. We are pretty concerned about this because we don't want Taylor to become bored with school. The principal is keeping us informed and there is a chance that they will switch over to grouping in the next few weeks if staying with their same teacher all day just isn't working out. What are they thinking though??? Every child does NOT learn on the same level - breaking into "groups" based on knowledge is a GOOD thing! It gives the more advanced kids a chance to excel, and it gives the struggling children the help they need. Staying with the same teacher and learning all at the same level is only good for "average" students. For parents with children in the extremes, average just doesn't make sense.

Taylor likes his teacher, Mrs. Barnes, just fine. He is confused as to why kids in his class are disruptive and don't want to learn. He thinks it's just awful when someone says "I don't like school". He just can't fathom! I found out yesterday that he's already told his teacher that he needs more advanced spelling words because "hatbox" and "path" just don't cut it. He told her that he would get a note from his Mom saying that he needed harder words. (Oh my!)

I was thrilled when he asked me to pack his lunch every day. He said "I just don't think it's healthy to have pizza 2 times a week at school". HOORAY!!! I've made the lunch thing really easy on myself by making several loaves of sandwiches and freezing them. For the meat sandwiches, I add a packet of mayo and mustard so he can put those on himself at school. All I do is grab a frozen sandwich (which then is nice and thawed by lunch plus it keeps his drink and fruit cold too) piece of fruit, snack, drink and some chips or crackers. Jordan and Madison have lunchboxes too, so I make all the kids lunch first thing in the morning. SO EASY!

We'll be glad to find out what's going to happen with this grouping thing though. We're not opposed to pulling him out and homeschooling for this grade if something doesn't change, but we're pretty confident that it will.