How do you spell relief? r-e-p-o-r-t-c-a-r-d-s

The first trimester of the school year is officially over. The first 13 weeks each Fall are pure torture. The kids are all adjusting to their new classes and teachers and their teachers are adjusting to them and I'm trying to keep everyone balanced.

Isabella is always our more high maintenance child. She always tests the waters, tries to see how far she can push our boundaries in the new year. I'm not sure if it has to do with her birthday being right at the beginning of the year or what? But every year we struggle. I am very in tune with my children. My "job" is to make sure they do their "jobs" and their only job is school and doing the work I know they are capable of. We've always had to push Isabella along, she'd much rather be elsewhere. She has stressed her teacher and I out this last few weeks because we know what she can do and we see what she is doing and turning in and it's frustrating because she can do soooo much more. It gets to a point where it's so much more frustrating because I am constantly monitoring her behavior and grades so much so that it's almost unfair to her siblings that she gets the majority of my energies.

Sophia has always been a source of frustration for Isabella because they are merely 17 months apart in age and yet 2 years apart in school grade levels. However, even if Isabella is working at her grade levels she feels pressure from Sophia who is working above grade level.

Ava is a sponge. She is also very observant to dynamics and how things work. She is determined to only learn the best from her sisters and she definitely learns from their mistakes which makes her stronger.

So, today through much coordination, I was able to attend all 3 parent-teacher conferences. I was prepared for the worst. I already knew Isabella was having problems, I thought perhaps a bomb would be dropped regarding either Ava or Sophia. 2nd grade was quite a traumatic year for Isabella and I expected that it was possible that Sophia may suffer the same fate.

I started my day in Ava's classroom, meeting with Mrs. Stone. I love Mrs. Stone, she was Sophia's teacher last year and she's very thorough and a great teacher. She has a way of explaining things to 6 year olds that is simply amazing. She showed me Ava's report card and I was amazed. For as much as Ava tells me she doesn't understand some things, I can see from her report card that she is doing very well and got nearly straights A's. Her weakness is penmanship, but part of that stems from us not knowing she needed glasses until 6 weeks ago. Since then her writing has improved.

Next stop, was an afternoon in Isabella's class. I brought Isabella with me (which is not the norm) and we discussed her effort and how we'd like to see changes. Then her teacher unveiled the report card and I was shocked. She had a solid B report card. Now, it's not A's, which it surely COULD have been if she had tried harder, but still it wasn't C's or D's either. She will be solid by the end of the year I am sure of that. Rami was a a little disappointed that the teacher had us so stressed out for the last few weeks and we see that she has a good report card overall.

Up next, Sophia. Holy cow, what can I say about Sophia? She continues to amaze me. She had straight A's and even one area that was the hard to ascertain...level 5. The 5th level is unheard of in the Ubaydi house and Sophia has managed to get that 5th level twice now. I am impressed with Sophia and always will be.