Oh Grace! Are her math issues with the language of math (I am probably using the wrong term but I mean the pluses, the equal signs, etc) or with the conceptual part?

Glad to hear she's feeling better, Burrell.

Oh, wow, Burrell.

I just read the sweetest story with this character and red pandas, so they're officially off the table. Can't be a panda poacher!

Burrell, conceptual. She has no clue what a one to one correspondence between number and objects. She often skips 14 when she is counting. She can't add. It's entirely frustrating to everyone.

In other news, Grace is failing first grade.

How do you feel about her repeating first grade? Is she likely to catch up in 2nd grade or would she benefit from another year to master that material on top of the physical stressors she has to deal with?

All things considered I would have been AMAZED if she could have stayed at grade level. It ain't easy being Grace and it doesn't have to do with her acuity. She's smart enough.

I'm not saying anything you don't know so much more than me, but I wouldn't think of it as a failure.

I am not concerned with her repeating first grade, beyond social stuff like she has really good social support and friends in her grade level. I think it's more likely, though, that they will put her in a special day class and that's pretty much where I draw the line. For Grace to fail, it's not a retention issue, it's an IEP issue.

I'll also note that Matilda did NOT seem to get some stuff in first grade until the very end of the year (reading, math). And it took a special reading tutor and then BOOM the light bulb went on. And the same with math. And Matilda is young-ish for her class (September birth) and sometimes I think Piaget is right. You just have to get to a certain cognitive level before you can apprehend certain things.

Wow, Burrell. I'm glad today was a bagel-eating day for her.

Burrell, that has to be wonderful and surreal at the same time.

Uhg, I just went off on my uncle. He is a fox republican and always forwarding stuff. Normally, I delete, but I just lost it tonight and can only hope I was level.

We are always hearing about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about Welfare running out of money?

Because threatening kids doesn't get them to the polls cause they can't vote. If you get SS, or are eligible for it? You can most likely vote.

Welfare in this country only applies to those with dependent children. So then...

Because child labor is illegal and immoral. Because if you haven't paid into SS, you can only be a beneficiary if your parents have (so then it isn't welfare!) and screw the toddler for the parents' decisions? Really? You don't get unemployment if you haven't been employed. You get the food kitchen run by the kindness of strangers. The United States has no national program of cash assistance for non-disabled poor individuals who are not raising children.

Healthy kids benefit us all. Just ask North Korea. Or Pakistan. * I don't wanna live there. It's called paying it forward and being a responsible village. I believe our country should provide the safety net for our most vulnerable of citizens when the voluntary community cannot. That is what WIC and TANF do. Of which many will run out of money soon if the *** gov't doesn't open back up. Which means kids who have no responsibility or recourse for their condition go hungry. I don't find that acceptable.

One has nothing to do with the other.

• I got hyperbolic. He will either listen or not, but godlovehim, he won't research.

That's hard, Kat. Math really does require a lot of big conceptual leaps. I remember with my kids we started by counting on fingers or counting and adding objects (like grapes or what not). But they are both like Noah and picked it up easily, so I am sure I have a skewed sense of how to teach it.