I want to take a moment to brag about Tori. I realize I don't speak of her often. I took this photo of her tonight, and it just blows me away. She's growing into a beautiful girl. I can't believe that she'll be 10 years old next month!
Tori is very smart. I know, parents always say this about their children. My saying it doesn't mean much. But I mean it. When we got her test results back from last year (think it was MAP tests, don't remember for sure off hand), it showed that she was way above average in every category. She's in the 4th grade and is reading 7th grade level.
Speaking of her reading skills, I had to fight with the school over that one. Last year Tori really wanted to read the Harry Potter series. However, the school refused to let her check them out because they are considered 6th grade reading level (and Tori was a 3rd grader). I explained that it wasn't above her reading skills. At the time, she was reading The Chronicles of Narnia at home. Personally, I think that book is much more advanced then HP. And, she had no problems reading it. She's a very avid reader. I like to think part of that is because of me. When she was younger (before school), I was always reading to her. The year I homeschooled Brandyn, I also worked with her. Nothing major, focus was mostly on reading. Never forced it on her though. If she didn't want to do it, we didn't. But, 9 out of 10 times she was happy to read (or be read too). Once she started school and had access to a variety of books, she just took off from there.
Back to the fight with the school. It started back in March 2011, carried through summer school too. Finally at the beginning of this school year they decided to test her reading skills. That was when they determined her reading skill is at 7.5. Which means 7th grade level and possibly a few select from the 8th grade level. I received this test score and a full apology from some of the school staff. I had it framed for a while.
Tori is very outgoing in everything she does. I just can't say enough about her. I have a feeling I'll get all scattered. On top of her love for reading, she also enjoys writing and drawing. The other night (ok sometime last week) we pulled out her old journals. The ones from school and home. I counted over 50 of them. Each page was filled with writing and pictures. They were started in 1st grade. Every entry had it's own drawing. And each entry was different. One day she would write about something that happened, the next it would be a made up story. Always unpredictable, but always fun to read.
Oh she's also a girly girl and a tomboy at the same time. She's the girl you can find outside in a pretty dress, hair fixed up and stomping in a mud puddle throwing worms (I've learned how to get them mud stains out, took lots of trial and error with the way she plays). I'm glad she loves to be a girl, yet isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. I seen a picture of her today at the school that was just awesome. She was holding an alligator (or maybe it was a crocodile, I didn't study the picture hard enough to check which one it was). She had a huge grin on her face.
Ok I could keep going on, but I'll stop for now. Not feeling good tonight. But I wanted to take a moment to brag on Tori. I'm going to search through my emails. I have one somewhere with a coupon for free photo prints. I want to have this one printed on quality paper and framed! (yes I realize there are distractions in the background, but it isn't too bad really. And I love this picture of her--she's actually smiling!).
Signed,
Super Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment