There's A Tiger Cub Living In Our Home

You read that right... We now have a tiger cub in our home. He's quite cute, and gets along really well with our family members and pets. He's not aggressive at all. And we finally got him to hold still long enough for us to snap this photo:

Ah, our little Tiger Cub Scout... Isn't he precious? See all those patches on that shirt? Yeah, well I sewed them on there. I had to use 5 different colors of thread. And he came home last night after his meeting with a new patch for me to sew on, his Bobcat patch, which will require yet another shade of blue thread. But don't be fooled, I'm really enjoying it! There are 8 requirements for a Tiger Cub to master, in order to earn the Bobcat patch (learning the Boy Scout motto, the hand shake, the salute, etc.). So, it was no easy task, but Samuel did it and he's very proud of himself. Next weekend, Hector and Samuel are going on a day long retreat. The boys will get lessons and instructions on how to shoot a bee bee gun, and how to fire a bow and arrow too. And it seems that up until this point, we've done an excellent job of shielding Samuel from firearms and weapons, because he had to ask what those 2 things are. So, I Googled them and showed him tons of bee bee gun and bow and arrow pictures. "Oh, I know what those are." Samuel exclaimed!

By the way, some of you may have heard the news that we also have a beautiful daisy living in our home now too. It's true! Avery has her first Daisy Girl Scout meeting this coming Monday night, so be on the lookout for her picture on here too! And, I'd also like to add that she will be selling Girl Scout cookies later this year, so don't buy them from anyone else. :-)

And because I am, after all, such a proud Mommy, I'd like to share that Samuel and Avery had their Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences yesterday. Avery's teacher only had positive things to say. She did make a point of mentioning that while Avery is a lot like Samuel, she has noticed some differences, such as the fact that Avery definitely talks more and participates more in class. And "She seems to have more energy!" :-) But she also made mention of the fact that every time she reminds Avery that she needs to sit down and listen, Avery does it immediately! :-) Avery's right on track academically, and her teacher said that Avery now gets to start bringing home the home reader books. Big fun!!!

Samuel's teacher also only had positive things to say, and asked me if I realized "just how smart he is." I laughed and told her that every parent wants to think their child is smart, right... And she told me that she wanted to show me Samuel's most recent reading assessment scores. There are tests that children take throughout the school year, that help the teacher identify where the student is academically. On this particular test that he took last week, there are stories that the child is supposed to read aloud to the teacher. If the child makes a certain number of mistakes on the first story, the teacher knows that's the level of reading the child needs to stop at and work more on. But if the child makes no reading mistakes, the child can go on to the second story and read it for the teacher. There are 5 stories in all for the entire school year, because the assumption is that most children will need to stop at the first or second story, because that is the average reading level for a 1st grader at the beginning of the school year. Well, Samuel read all 5 stories without any mistakes. So, he's completed all of the stories for the entire year. His teacher told me that the school's librarian doesn't even start testing 1st graders for the accelerated reader program until January, because that's the average time she can expect to see 1st graders reading good enough to actually start taking the tests. But, at Samuel's teacher's request, the school's librarian is going to be setting up that program some time this week or next so that Samuel can start taking them. Can you see the little grin that's on my face right now??? And, the teacher also wanted me to know that while the average 1st grader reads around 37 - 56 words per minute, and the goal is to have children reading around 60 words per minute at the END of their 1st grade year, Samuel is currently reading at a rate of 94 words per minute. Uh huh! That little grin is still there...

It seems that all of those books that all of you have given the children over the years are really paying off. And all those nights Hector and I have laid in bed and read to them, well that's paying off too... So, I'm going to be posting a list on here some time hopefully in the near future of books that we'd be so thrilled for you to consider purchasing as Christmas gifts for our kids. I've asked both of their teachers for input on books that are not only on their reading level and age level, but also books that are simply great books!

Have a great weekend, everyone!