Back to school night : 2nd Grade

Talk about feeling heavy, I certainly felt the bricks coming down on my shoulders after being informed on what my child will be learning as 2nd grader, daily, weekly and for the whole school year.

• Reading: 20-30 min, every day through out the whole year. As parents, we are encourage to ask open ended questions about the plot, compare and contrast characters in the book vs. people we know and also asked our child to prediction of how the ending is going to be.
• Writing: All 2nd graders are expected to write grammatically correct sentences with punctuation, and capitalization etc. They also have a journal that they keep to write down their free flowing thoughts, and ideas.
• Spelling: The school has cut down the number of words the kids need to learn on the weekly basis so I’m SO happy about it.

• Math:

1. Number sense
• Place value of whole numbers to 1000
• Addition and subtraction of 2 and 3 digit numbers with regrouping ( not sure what regrouping means)
2. Algebra and functions
3. Measurement ( metric vs. English units of measure for length, volume, area and perimeter)
4. Geometry
5. Statistics
6. Data analysis
7. Probability
8. Problem solving

These kids will be tested weekly on a math fact sheet. 3 min time test with have 36 questions ( i.e. 5 sec/question). One must score 36/36 on the test before one can move on to the next math fact sheet. If the child complete the whole cycle of sheets then they will start the cycle again but the time allowed is reduced down to 2 min ( 3.3 sec/question). This time constraint sounded stressful for the kids and parents. Got to figure out a way to make this fun for her because it’s going to be part of her weekly routine until she stops going to this school.

• Science

1. Earth Science: Rocks, soils, fossils
2. Physical Science: Learning about motion, sound energy and magnetic energy
3. Life Science: Life cycle

These topics are interesting and appropriate for her age and I strongly feel that making the connection of motion and PE may motivate her to like PE more.

• Social Science

1. Government
2. Exploring Family Roots
3. People who supply our needs
4. Cultural difference etc..

• PE: My favorite subject in school but not Danielle’s. School’s expectation are basic: participation and sportsmanship so that to me is the easiest subject out of all. Shows up, give it your best and don’t feel bad if you loose. I plan to work with Danielle on jogging and softball to build some self-confidence out in the field.

After meeting her teacher, I sense that she’s stricter than her 1st grade teacher. I felt her intensity in her sentences, and sternness in rules and expectations . We will have a parent teacher conference in November so we’ll see how it goes. I was sitting with other parents and one mom was trying to console me by saying “ It sounds like a lot but it’s not really that bad. Just wait until she goes to 8th grade.” It’ll be interesting to compare the workload for Secondo 5 years from now. I’m sure the school will provide more testing and homework in this time span.
SERENITY NOW….

Changing to more lighter and funny subject
Last night, for a brief moment, I turned on the TV and Dolly Parton was singing 9-5 while the professionals were dancing on the floor. I noticed how skinny she’s getting and how her small frame accentuate her large breast even more than before. We all went to bed before knowing who got kicked off the show and I had the dream that I had a boob job gone wrong. They were shaped like pyramids and there’s nothing the doctor could do to fix it. I blame Dolly for this wicked dream of mine. I'm happy with what I have and will not get an augmentation even though most of my neighbors have one.