Still healthy (I think). The open house went well, and our reward (the Snork Maiden served as a student host) was to go to FLS’s tree-trimming party afterwards.
The Snork Maiden has hit a rough patch in math, and her English teacher (Dinah) was disappointed with her last paper. It sounds like she mostly has B’s right now, with a C in math. Aside from responding to her math teacher when he wrote to let us know she would be getting a “progress report” (i.e., a lack of progress report), and offering her our general support, we’re doing a pretty good job not fussing, nagging, policing homework, etc. There’s no real obstacle that I can see to her doing better–she just has to decide to put in the effort. My personal opinion is that she should be earning A’s in English and in Chinese, at least, but she’s not putting herself out enough to earn them right now. There’s been some distracting social stuff going on, and working on the play was very time-consuming (the D test grade in math that’s pulling down her average was a test she missed and then pushed the makeup test until after the play without doing sufficient review). So now I get to see what a student “not working to her potential” looks like when she’s at home. This is the lowest her grades have ever been. And of course they’re okay–as I have told countless students for many years, a B is not a failing grade!–but I can’t help wishing she were excelling in something academic right now. My sense is that she is not happy with the current state of her grades, though, so we’ll see what happens with that. She did seem to be pegging away at math this weekend.
She is playing the marimba for the Nightmare before Christmas theme at the upcoming holiday concert, and the clarinet and sax for other pieces. She’s been practicing said marimba with a portable set this weekend, as well. That will be fun to hear and watch.
Literature Should Mean Something in Your Life 