In the beginning...

Every journey has a beginning. Some beginnings are more obvious than others.

When you think of a trip you might take there is a definite beginning and a definite end. Usually both of those places are home.

I am afraid that this new journey of ours does not have a beginning that I can pinpoint. Unless that beginning is the birth of Will. But, I don't want to bore you by going back that far!

This is definitely the beginning of this new leg of our journey with Will. And this is definitely the beginning of me blogging about this journey. I want to be able to have a record of what we are embarking on. I know there is going to be lots happening, lots of questions, hopefully lots of answers and I need a place to write about it all. I do much better writing than I do talking. So, I hope this blog becomes a place I can come to record my frustrations, my questions, my celebrations and everything in between that occurs on this quest.

Journey... quest... it all sounds so mystical and fantastical.

Unfortunately it is all real life and it is MY real life. Actually, Will's real life.

Will is in 3rd grade and will be 9 years old in a little over 2 months. He has begun to struggle in school. It has been slowly going down hill over the last month. He struggles with careless mistakes in math, he struggles with paying attention in reading and science. I wholeheartedly believe he struggles majorly with reading comprehension, that remains to be seen though.

There are so many things to touch on, to catch up on where we are right now. I can't possibly conquer them all right now. So, I am going to begin with what I am hearing from his teachers.

Back in late November/ early December (08) we received Will's interim report for 2nd quarter. His grade in math had gone down to a C+ and reading had slid a bit, too. I spoke to both of his teachers and this is what I was told:

The comments from Mrs. K were these: "Will continues to understand math concepts, but recently struggled on a quiz because of simple addition mistakes and misreading the problems. (He had to go back into other problems to solve new problems) He should have plenty of time to get his grade up. Keep practicing reading carefully."

And from an email from Ms. R, She suggests we have a conversation with him about REALLY paying attention. Too many times, apparently, he will ask her questions that she has already answered. She says he has great potential if he can only find his motivation.

So, we have worked on these things, the best that we can from home. Will does extra math now in the evenings. Chris and I felt that if we could get him to improve his memorization of math facts he would not make so many careless mistakes.

But, then came last Friday. Will brought home an assessment from Science class.

He received a grade of N.

That was the lowest possible grade. Ms. R had attached a rubric so that we could see what was expected and what each grade would be given for. The assessment was on the week's reading about fossils and how they form. In short, Will was given a hypothetical situation where some fish were swimming in the ocean, they became diseased and died. He was to then describe in words and pictures how they might have become fossils.Will's answer was pretty much just a reiteration of the hypothetical scenario. The fish were swimming, they swam into disease and then died. He drew a picture that showed this. Nothing was written about how the fossils might have formed.

I emailed Ms. R on Friday and heard back from her on Monday. I was already scheduled to work in the library Monday, so she came and saw me while I was there. We spoke for a good 10 minutes and I got some information from Mrs. K, too. This is getting lengthy so I am going to bullet-point what I came away from these conversations with.

• Will has two opportunities this week to get his math grade up to a B. (The quarter ends Friday)
• Will does NOT pay attention in Ms. R's classroom. He is not disruptive at all, but he does not pay attention.
• Will asks the same questions that she has already answered, sometimes numerous times before.
• Will received one of the only 4 N's on the science assessment out of the two classrooms.
• ADD was mentioned, by Ms. R. Only as something to look into.
• They have no idea what is going on with Will anymore than I do...

I am waiting on a return call or email from the school counselor, who happens to be Will's former 1st grade teacher. (Who at one conference told us Will has a difficult time focusing when being read to.) After some reading, thinking and talking to others I feel that we are at the juncture where we need to look into some testing for Will.
He is losing confidence and I am afraid beginning to dislike school.
So, that brings us back to "the beginning". The beginning of a journey with so many unknowns. I have a lot more to share, but will wait for a later post.