3.6

Caution: unabashed and totally biased parental bragging ahead. Don't say that you were not warned.

Report cards for the second nine weeks of school came home this week. Once I got over the shock that we are halfway through the school year and regained consciousness, I took a look at the results. Overall, not too bad. Aidan is performing at or above grade level in all academic subject areas. In academic and behavior traits, he is considered satisfactory in all areas except one: uses self-control. Yes, he continues to struggle with not acting on the first impulse he considers, so we still have work to do. However, since that was the only "blip" on his report card, we were pleased.

Yesterday Aidan came home with a report that details the results of a STAR Reading diagnostic. According to this measure, Aidan scored a national percentile rank of 99 among students in his grade. Additionally, his grade equivalent score is 3.6, which means that his reading skills are comparable to those of an average third grader after the sixth month of school. Wow! Our six year old (seven in two months) who has been in first grade for five months reads at the level of a third grader after six months!

Based on my experience giving Accelerated Reader quizzes to the students in Aidan's class, I know that he is one of the best readers in his class. But I had no idea that his reading was as good as it is, and I am so pleased and proud. We have worked since birth to instill a love of reading and it is really starting to show: he adores reading, and reads anything and everything, every chance he gets.

As a rule, we don't reward academic success - it is, as we tell him, his job to do his best in school - but in this instance we are going to give him a special treat. We will take him to the bookstore this weekend and let him pick out a brand new book. If I know my child as well as I think I do, he will be thrilled. And we will, of course, be proud.

Six degrees and all that

Most people have heard of the concept of six degrees of separation, namely that any two people are separated by six links, or people that they know. There was even a movie by that name back in the early 90s, which I saw with my friend Barb in a cool movie theater on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. I can't remember the name of the theater to save my life, but we liked it because it served beer.

Six degrees plays an interesting role in Facebook, the social networking site. I joined Facebook back in November, at the arm-twisting suggestion of my friend Evelyn, who pretty much said that I would never hear from her again unless I joined Facebook. To my surprise, I have enjoyed my experience thus far, catching up with people with whom I had lost contact and just staying abreast of my friends and their activities (although some people take the updating WAY too far - do you really need or want me to know what you are doing every minute of the day?).

Thanks to Facebook, we have our own little six degrees of Facebook example. The aforementioned Evelyn attended a Catholic grade school in Florida for 3rd through 5th grades. Last month, she created a Facebook group for the school and has received several requests from alums to join, not just people she knew as her classmates. A few weeks ago she received a request from a man that she didn't think she remembered from school, but she approved his request. As she scanned his list of friends, or people with whom he is connected on Facebook, she recognized one of the names...none other than Barb, whom I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

So although Evelyn does not know Barb, Barb knows me, who knows Evelyn, who went to school with a guy who knows Barb. To quote Evelyn: "This whole six degrees thing is, well, real and scary."