THE Year

This is THE year. This is the really defining point where Drew shows if he is just an immature, young boy who’s gonna follow mainstream schooling or not. I have always said that first grade is going to be the tell all.

This is the first year of full day school. Sure, he did enrichment in the past to extend the day. But half the day was in the shuffle and getting acclimated. Now he will be at one facility, one classroom, ALL day long!

Drew is a bright kid. If you ask him what a field goal plus a touchdown equals, he knows. But not every teacher in every classroom is always going to adjust the assignment in terms that he can work with. And at this point Drew does not read and has absolutely no interest in reading. This year is THE year. He will either get bitten by the reading bug in class with his peers, or make it painfully obvious that he needs extra help. Either way, I’m up for the challenge (sorta).

The truth is that he is YOUNG. He’s a June birthday in a world where EVERYONE gets held back. In some cases, his friends are an entire year older than him. He’s also an immature boy. He’s more interested in playing sports than sitting still and reading books. I have complete and total confidence that the child WILL read, it’s just when and how.

I told myself that we were going to keep up with sight words and I would possibly set up time with a tutor over the summer. Then the summer happened, more like slipped away, and I have yet to even go through the sea of papers his kindergarten teacher gave us to work on. Maybe this is another example of my kids falling short simply by being related to me…doh!

Class lists came out today and everyone is trying to decipher if they were assigned the “best” teacher, if their kids are with the most complimentary peers, etc. I’m not sure any of it is a tell tale for what kind of year it will all be. All I know is this is a very important year for Drew and I’m going to give it MY all to help him through it…so G-d help me!!!!