Today was report card pickup for both JD and Bunny. Things are great with the kids' academics.
JD has shown improvement in all areas. Not that any particular area needed dramatic improvement, he either maintained Bs or went from C to B. Seeing him be able to keep up with the other kids in class, even excel in some areas, gives us great pride. While it's nice to have natural abilities, having a strong work ethic and posessing the ability to listen to and follow direction is just as important, perhaps more so. How more so? Having strong intellect and low drive doesn't get a person anywhere. Having a strong work ethic will maintain a person throughout their life. Having great intellect and strong work ethic gives a person opens even more doors.
Bunny is an extremely bright four-year-old. She is reading at a very high level. She can read any children's book by herself and can decode most unfamiliar words. She understands number and geometric relationships and has mastered a few single-digit addition problems. I wouldn't go so far as to call her "gifted," but she's academically above all of the kids in her class. She's having some trouble cooperating with other kids and letting them answer questions. We hope that having a full Kindergarten workload where differentiation is a little easier to accomplish will help her. Otherwise, I may have to home school. Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.
One thing that is fun to see is Bunny loves to read. Loves it. She has burned through our considerable library. We now allow her to read after she goes to bed. She will read for an hour to an hour-and-a-half. While we would like her to get plenty of sleep, we're not going to discourage her passion.
