Report Cards

The boys' report cards came home yesterday and we were very pleased as well as very preplexed. Both kiddos did well academically, but let's start with the our little man. 2nd graders don't receive traditional letter grades yet, which I honestly didn't know until the parent/teacher conference last week. They receive O's for "Outstanding," G's for "Good," S's for "Satisfactory," and N's for "Needs Work."

The little man brought home a couple of O's (His teacher tells me she doesn't give many of those), lots of G's and a smidgen of S's. Of course every parent would love for his/her child to come home with straights O's, right? That's just the way we are. What perplexes me is that he received S's in the area of "Work Habits," specifically "Complies with Established Rules," "Exhibits Courteous Behavior" and "Respects Personal and School Property." What? Okay, I understand these S's mean my kid is doing fine, that his overall works habits are satisfactory, but they aren't "good." I'm not necessarily worried, only curious. What I'm wondering is... what on earth is he doing or not doing that prevents him from getting a better rating? And he's not respecting personal and school property well enough to at least get a G? Is this how juvenile delinquency starts? Things that make you go "Hmmmmm."

The 5th grader brought home all A's and B's, which was definitely pleasing to us. He's in an advanced math class, which challenges me daily (That's another blog), but he pulled out an A and we're thrilled. Go get 'em, Tiger! He received A's in all academic areas except one... Science, where he received a B. B's are good and we're cool with those.

But here's the perplexing part of the report card... He received B's in P.E. and General Music. What? How do you get a B in P.E. and Music? I didn't think that was possible, but apparently, I'm wrong. Come to think of it, he received B's in P.E. last year as well. Do we have a lazy, couch potato on our hands or what? I guess we should be happy he's not in high school where GPA means everything these days, otherwise how would we begin to explain to perspective colleges that our son just couldn't attain that elusive A in P.E.? I did notice that every category in which the big man received A's, he also received an "Outstanding" for effort, however, every category in which he received B's, he received a "Good" for effort. Things that make you go "Hmmmmm."