Report cards

Justin and Kyle brought home their report cards for the first quarter last week. Now that all that Halloween stuff is over I have time to talk, I mean, brag about them.
I need to start by explaining that our school district, in my opinion, ruined report cards a few years ago. They began using a different grading system for K thru 3rd grades. Instead of the traditional letters that we're all used to, they started using E for Exceeds the grade level, M for Meets the grade level, B for Below the grade level, and W for Warning. Although Justin and Kyle would have E's and M's on their report cards, Jason and I found it hard to judge how well our kids were really doing in school. Would they have gotten straight A's or not? The traditional letters are the ones that mean something to us!
Now I can move on to the good news... Justin is in 4th grade this year. That means he now gets a REAL report card. I tend to worry a LOT, so I was concerned that we might find out that Justin isn't the smart student that we've thought he is! How awful would that be after all these years? Well, worry no more - Justin got STRAIGHT A's this quarter!!!!! Not only that but all A1's, meaning outstanding effort as well! We know that Justin is smart and a model student as we've been told by all of his teachers, but as a parent, it's so awesome to see straight A's on that paper! He also received a Principal's Award for his outstanding achievement in all subjects.
And Kyle did really well too! He had four E's and four M's on his report card. His reading level is a 20, but the benchmark for this quarter was a 4, at the end of the year they should have a 16. He's obviously way above average in reading (just like his brother). His teacher also wrote a really nice comment about him: "Kyle is an excellent, independent worker. He takes great pride in a job well done. Kyle gets along well with the other students in the class and is a good participant during class discussions." Kyle received an award as well. His was for outstanding achievement in reading.
Parent-teacher conferences are tomorrow night. I don't foresee any problems. Conferences continue on Tuesday, so the boys have a day off. I'll be rewarding them by going up to Woodfield Mall to have lunch and spend some time at the Lego store!

Congrats to my sons on a job well done!!!