School Days - Grade 5

On Monday I wrote about Q's year in Senior Kindergarten and today I'm talking about E's year in Grade 5.  In Monday's post you can see some of my comments on the school year in general regarding home schooling, masks, etc. 

To be honest, I don't really have much of an idea of how E has done this year.  I felt very disconnected from what was going on in the classroom, and I will have to take the ultimate blame for that I suppose since I wasn't proactive in finding out.  E has never been one to volunteer information and getting details out of him is usually pretty difficult.  We did get report cards twice throughout the year and we spoke with the teacher then, but it was always the same discussion (and the same discussion we've been having for years with E's teachers - he's a good kid, needs constant reminders to get his work done, seems to know the material but has to work on reading and writing) but I don't really know what they did for tests or project since he never had any homework.  Mostly I was just happy they were physically in the building so I took that as a win and didn't concern myself too much with the curriculum.  I know he is clever and gets along with people so those are pluses too. 

I do know they read about Anne Frank and did another Holocaust book, they were working on long division and algebra, and they do the Wordle and Globle each day. Grade 5 students get their own laptop and will keep it until Grade 8 when they get another laptop, so that's a great tool for them.

We registered E for some tutoring for May and June (a slow start but I'll blame COVID since we wanted in-person sessions) and I think we will continue in the fall.  We wanted them to focus on reading comprehension and handwriting (both in terms of neatness but also answering the full question in full sentences with punctuation). He did French and English and seemed to like it, or at least not complain about going. 

E started walking to and from school each day (and later biking when it got warmer), sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.  He also started getting to his piano lessons on his own. We were very proud of him for managing his time and not getting lost ;) He doesn't have a phone but we can track him with an Airtag, however, it's not something we constantly monitor since he knows the parameters for hanging out with friends after school and we trust him to make good decisions.  I'm glad he's had this opportunity for some more independence. 

I think the last two years (but actually the last three school years) has been hard on everyone especially the teachers so I don't really blame all of us - parents, students, and teachers - who may be phoning it in a bit.  I think people will be reenergized come September and we'll be ready for Grade 6.  

Ready to walk to school.

Working at an online art class.

After I found out E did Wordle, I would sometimes do it too so we could talk about it after school

Looking cool.

Dance performance that we got to see in person.