Snail-ey

Snail-ey. That's what I call her because she is often found facedown, knees up to her chest wrapped in a blanket up to her neck. She looks like a snail for real. She is mini me, no question asked. We were at the bookstore the other day and she had to take her magazine & read it while drinking her cocoa. I asked if she was ready to leave after quite awhile & I was informed that she was not ready at all. She was still reading!  Kid is brilliant, except for the whole math issue.  Yeah, I haven't mentioned that have I? Second week of school they had 4sight testing which gives teachers an idea of where kids are at coming into a new year? Is that not the stupidest thing??? Coming off summer break, it's 98 degrees IN THE SCHOOL only adding to the extended summer feel, but hey- lets test them now! Anyway, the math portion had 10 seperate sections, each scored individually. Mind you the kids are NOT supposed to know this stuff yet (adding to the dumb). 100% is expected by JUNE, now average is still 50%. Well, Miss Brilliant (tm) up there was tired/didn't care/didn't know/colored in circles to make pretty designs/WTF ever. She got 100% on the oral section & obliterated the other 9. I mean seriously, 18, 22,16... WITH the oral averaged in she ended up with a total of 30%. THIRTY. "BELOW BASIC". Math *is* her worst subject which means she was a B+ student in math 2 years running.

This test, counted. They used it to gauge who needs extra help. Yep. She shaded her way into 90 minutes a day of afterschool tutoring *just in case* she really sucked that bad. I said, but she is a B+ math student and I actually heard from more than one person, "Yes but she is A+ in everything else so this would pull her up."

Really? Everything needs to be perfect? I didn't know that. I did cave & try the tutoring though just in case. Third grade math gets friggin hard friggin fast let me tell you. I wanted both of us covered in case she struggled. 

And then it all snowballed.

She is nervous about the math. She is overthinking it and changing answers that were originally right. She is in bed at night with a notebook making up problems to regroup & round on her own. (Then she is making up sentences & finding subjects & predicates no lie). Her mistakes for the most part have been careless ones or from overthinking. Then we go to tutoring. 90 minutes a day, of NO math! No really, NO math. The MATH GROUP has done homework, read library books, read stories and answered questions, had snacktime...but not done a SINGLE math problem. She was coming out at 4pm with homework to still do, dead tired saying "I wish we did math!". I gave it time to make sure the program was up & running, then I yanked her. She had a test last week that she completely melted down on. So bad that he had her retake it the next day. If she had been home & I had been able to help her she probably would have done better. Her teacher is awesome. Everything the kids get wrong he explains right beside the wrong answer. They get indiviual attention somehow. I think once she calms down and he & I just help her she will be fine. The meltdown retake test was an 82 & I have to tell ya I was relieved to see that. I feared worse, If meltdowns with her still pull a B I think we are going to be just fine.

Math tutoring, with no math. Seriously, WTH.