*headdesk*

This was a light homework week because of Halloween, so Evangeline really did have all her work done on the train. Her dad's been picking Ana up and doing homework with them both after school because he's going off to basic training school, so when I saw him after school yesterday I told him three things:

1. Eva has finished all her work.
2. However, I'd like her to rewrite her spelling words twice.
3. And if she reads another chapter of Frog and Toad, have her tell you the story.

For 3 he apparently misunderstood that this was her assigned reading (I wish) and had her write her retelling in her homework book. I would not have even seen it if I hadn't decided to have Evangeline go over her words one more time on the train this morning.

The teacher as good as told me that she thought maybe the only reason Evangeline didn't seem to have trouble retelling stories at home was because she was familiar with them, even though I know for a fact that's not the case. (I wouldn't've even had any conversation with her if she'd just sent Eva down the hall to get the notebook herself. It's all of 50 feet!) It's for precisely this reason that I don't give her books she's familiar with to read. But this will all get sorted out or it won't on parent teacher night.

So now it looks like she's got a sorta very polite, schooly "fuck you" right in the homework notebook! "You think the kid can't do it? HERE'S THE PROOF!"

Either we'll get a snippy letter home today, or we won't but the teacher will have really wanted to write a snippy letter home today. And I actually can't even blame her! I'd do the same thing. (And guaranteed it's just going to seem like she's familiar with the book and/or she had lots and lots of help writing that out. Whatever.)

I really, really want Evangeline to pass that spelling test, though. She should be taking it right about now, so fingers crossed!

Yeah, we got a snippy letter.

Which I expected, as noted.

And on the train we read the third chapter of Frog and Toad Are Friends ("This book is not on her reading level!"), which Evangeline has never read before: The Lost Button. She stopped a few times mid-story to guess what would happen next.

And I asked Eva after the fact what happened...

Me: So, Evangeline, what happened in this story?
Eva: He lost a button and -
Me: Wait, wait. What happened first?
Eva: They went for a walk, Frog and Toad, and he lost a button. And he-
Me: Who he?
Eva: Toad, Toad lost the button. And he and Frog went looking for it, but they couldn't find it. And they couldn't find it, and then when Toad went home he found it.
Me: Why did Frog look for the button too?
Eva: Because he and Toad are best friends.
Me: Okay. And then?
Eva: And then Toad took all the buttons they found that weren't his, and put them on his jacket and gave them to Frog.
Me: Why? (This isn't stated in the story.)
Eva: I think he just thought maybe Frog was upset at looking for the button, so he wanted to make him happy.

This is pretty close to the synopsis I would've given. This is, as near as I can tell, what Evangeline's teacher thinks she can't do. Are first grade teachers looking for something different?

Evangeline also, I will note, is very careful when reading dialog to try to read it with the appropriate emotion. She'll actually go and re-read something if she started out "sad" and thinks it should have been "happy", or if she was "shouting" and the text says the character "wailed". I don't think I'm just doting when I say that *I* think this puts her ahead of many young readers, and, for that matter, many not-so-young readers who ought to know better.

I mean, here's the thing. I am starting to think, as I've said, that Evangeline may not be reading as well as it seems, that she relies on guesswork more than she ought. However - is she also just working incredibly sub-optimally in class? Because I can't figure this out at all!

Her spelling test didn't come back yet either. I'm quite annoyed.

Over in the Asperger community, somebody just posted

that Arthur just had a show on Asperger's!

George meets a rabbit with Asperger's, and after a few rather pathetic comments about "the piece of the puzzle" the show goes on.

( Read more... )

There's also a "Word From Us Kids" that was edited from that episode, despite it being otherwise complete. You can see that clip at the end of the video here.