The boy is just too smart....

Benjamin can read almost any word that can be sounded out. He already knows all 200 of his sight words that he is supposed to learn by the end of the year. But he does not read very fluently and his comprehension isn't the best. So mommy instated a new rule yesterday. It was a half day and I told him that to get to use any electronic device (tv, computer, DS, Netflix, or Granny's tablet) he would have to read. 1 page for 1 minute. Mommy thought she was being so smart. This way the time he spends looking at the pictures would not count towards tv time. So, Granny took Benjamin to the library to pick out some books. Benjamin picked out his own books. There were very few words on the pages. That way he didn't have to read many words to get his electronic time. Mommy is now going to have to specify that there must be at least 10 words on a page for it to count. I doubt this is going to go over very well. I'm still not sure if he doesn't have good reading comprehension or if he just feels no need to tell you about what he just read to you. With him it could go either way.

Benjamin's Read-a-thon

This year's Read-a-thon was a Pirate theme. He asked Granny, Uncle Bill, Aunt Krissy, and mommy to sponser him. Benjamin really enjoyed the reading and being read to during the read-a-thon. Last year Benjamin was the most read Kindegardener and was slightly tramatised by the experience, but this year he said he wanted to be most read 1st grader, so him and mommy read. We read 6 - 400 page books (Charlie Bone series) and a lot of little books. Needless to say, Benjamin was the most read 1st grader at 3960 minutes (66 hours) in 2 weeks. He was also the highest money raiser in 1st grade.

This pirate in the back is the new principal, Mr. Miller. He agreed to let the top readers & money earners in each grade throw a bucket of water on him if the school raised $12,000.00. The money is being used to purchase technology for the school, (computers and such I imagine.)

This is all of the top readers & money earners for each grade.

The students raised over $15,000.00...so Mr. Miller got wet. Since Benjamin was top reader & money earner he should have gotten to throw 2 buckets, but they didn't let him. They let the girl in 2nd place throw one of them. He noticed that wasn't fair, but he hasn't gone on too much about it yet...I'm guessing we will be discussing the unfairness of it in a few weeks.

Here he is with the list of top readers. His is the first name by 1st grade.

And here he is with the top money earner list. Benjamin's class was also the top reader & top earner 1st grade class.

Last year we had a little problem with the teacher that Benjamin was assigned to. I had spoken to the principal before summer started and we decided he would have Mrs. Pfeiffer. Then the day before school started he was in the wrong teacher's class. The principal was too busy to speak to me about fixing this mistake, so I did the only thing I could...me & granny went to the district to get his teacher changed. I am sure a lot of parents would not have gone to this trouble, and most people think I was crazy for doing it...But it was the absolute best thing I could have done because Benjamin's kindergarden teacher moved up to 1st grade this year and the whole class got to stay with her. She is a wonderful teacher and he loves to go to school and see her. The parents of her class would like her to move to 2nd grade next year. And so would the kids.

That is probably because this is what she was willing to dress up like for the assembly today...notice what the teachers behind her are wearing. Who wouldn't love her.

Kenzie, I think this is Mr. Hardy as a cowboy pirate.