Third Grade

Wow...a whole academic year has gone by full of good things and some not so good things....
This is my perspective of what I went through while my daughter pursued her Grade 3...
Like I always said....its always a reminder when Riona reaches that stage...what happened,,,also years from now....they will exactly know what as a mother I endured during her third grade...

August 2007
Come Aug 16th Tanya is off to a new classroom at her school.
She has a new teacher that definitely added to her excitement but her best friend Ellina in 2nd grade was not to be in her class...
I remember her first project was on "ME" Collage and I went out of the way to help her out.
As days went she made new friends all outside her class room yet in third grade....
Swimming session started and she began swimming twice a week as a part of Barracudas team...

September 2007

Nothing unusual I can recall....other than that she made good friends with Sabrina having to lose her in less than a month as she moved to another school...
We took a trip to the Kenting and thoroughly enjoyed the beach...and the great weather.

October 2007
We continued with our Kumon worksheets at home always having to catch up and for the first time I started hearing she has to take ERB's this year...It was a mission for me to find as much information I can and so I started searching on the web...what can I do to help my child get a better score...ERB,CTP-4 ,WRAP are terminologies became a part of our daily living at home...yet we all knew very little what that is..She won a single medal at ACC swimming competitions....

November 2007

She has her biggest swim meet...and she won a medal in a relay...but continued to be motivated to pursue. She became a Brownie in Girl Scouts and started looking forward to alternate Monday evenings where we left school past 5 pm..

December 2007

We went to Kochi our India Holiday plan and the girls had a blast with all their cousins.She celebrated her eighth birthday.

January 2008

School started with a series of field trips and she began being friends with Ellina,Michelle and Carissa - a foursome that played all year.Tanya learned cycling in Singapore ..yet another skill she acquired..

February 2008

As usual Chinese New Year Holidays...we focused on preparing for ERB tests and literally sat home all week...in lousy weather..

March 2008.

We had her conference at school was in for a shock with her DRA results...
Now I am wiser and understand DRA terminology like an expert...needless to say Tanya too got wiser and is aware how one test she did not focus can mess up her positon in school completely ...great lesson learnt...

April 2008

A fantastic holiday in New Zealand during the spring break followed by CTP 4 for which we will know results only in fall.

May 2008

Lot of parties...Thrid grade camping at Taiwan...and Camp Taiwan again with Girl Scouts..her first voice recital and Chanterelles...an absolutely hectic time...and lo we are at the end other year...

She had a Biography Power Point Presentation which needed a lot of parental help.And both Sedj and me did everything we could in the little time to help her....

One evening she spontaneously came and told me " I love you both so much" ...I asked her almost instantly what happened she said..." You know you both are helping me so much"

I could read a child who values timely help!What she didnt assume it was what was expected by us.

She is losing both her friends who made her school life wonderful Michelle to Beijing and Ellina to Canberra....yet looks forward to a fabulous fourth grade.
and a fantastic summer holidays...

Given below are few photos with a lot of memories.

While I think of all great things that happened what could have been better...

She could have done much better in her DRAs ..only if I was aware of such a thing existed..

Her typing skills could be better. I realised if a child could read at age 6 had an advantage at Grade 3 better typing skills definitley have an advantage...in her environment

So we will focus on her reading( read retelling and imagination )skills ,typing skills and want her multiplication tables to masterd till 20*12.(She is currently at (12*12)and hope to brush her language skills in Malayalam,Hindi and Mandarin.

She attended Mandarin lessons and Piano thorugh the whole year also put up a wonderful JAzz performance for The Spring .

I hope Tanya to write a journal of her Third Grade Perspective soon....for all to read...