Under the Weather

Last week I was sick, so I didn't get a chance to write about Boylee's week. Here are a few things that happened:

We had breakfast at the cafeteria. Boylee has really  been wanting to do this, so I decided we could be flexible about our "one lunch per week at the cafeteria" plan and substitute a breakfast. He had cereal and some sort of graham cracker thing, plus milk and juice.  The cafeteria's main lady -- who seems so sweetly concerned with all the kids getting enough to eat -- was desperately pushing nectarines on the kids.  Almost no one wanted them -- I was drooling over them, especially when I saw that they were organic.  Even Boylee rejected one, though he loves nectarines.  This is obviously the biggest challenge for the school lunch program: they can present healthy food but they can't make the kids eat it.

Then I got sick, and I was feeling so miserable the next morning that I could hardly roll out of bed.  The solution? Another breakfast at the cafeteria.  I slumped at the table, barely conscious.  Boylee was ecstatic.  In all, I spent a total of  $1.20 on two school breakfasts, and I can say that was definitely money well spent.   

On Friday when I was feeling better I finally got to volunteer in the classroom. During my hour and a half there, while I did some filing and hole punching, the teacher called on Boylee 3 times -- this must have been her little gift to me in return for my work -- and I got to see him read a sentence written on the board, and read a sentence from a book, and get up and go to the board to circle a word that he had to pick out of a sentence. I was so proud of him!

Boylee is very proud of himself because he got a "4" grade on one of his worksheets.  That is the highest grade available, and basically means "above grade level." Everything else he's done has been graded 3, which means at grade level.  Boylee reports that some kids have gotten 2s. 

I actually don't love that there's a grading system at all, but I do remember something similar from my days in elementary school.  The choices then were: a-, a, a+, and a+ excellent. I know I was always very proud of myself whenever I got a a+ excellent.