Assignment 9

Katie Anne thinks she is fat, and I reminded her that all girls gain a little weight at the onset of puberty. Then I casually said I was going to start eating healthier and exercising and asked if she wanted to join me. As our text suggests Katie Anne reacts strongly to stressful events and experiences pleasurable situations with intense feelings of elation (Berk, 288). She also has mood swings and shuts herself in her room when she comes home from school in a bad mood (Berk, 289), yet other times she is happy and pleasant. She argues with me over clothes, allowance and curfew, so I renegotiate some of the rules giving her more input like allowing a later bedtime in exchange for more chores. She would rather concentrate on boys and her friends than her schoolwork, a typical sign of puberty according to our text (Berk, 290).

I would say that Katie Anne continues to be resilient. The rules are clear and she follows them. During her pre-school years, Katie Anne was perhaps over-controlled more as I made decisions for her. Now she and I negotiate more. In pre-school Katie Anne was slow to try new things and often was frustrated when she could not perform a task, a sign she might be over-controlled a bit. I feel I have relaxed as she has become more mature and can use reason to understand what I ask of her.

Katie Anne's oral reading, decoding and spelling skills are above grade level, and her reading comprehension is about at grade level. She is a pretty good speller, but isn't much of an inspired writer at this point. Katie Anne can type now, thanks to a 6th grade keyboarding class, I help with writing assignments at home.
Katie Anne is in an advanced math class and does very well in science, but is only an average student in English and social studies. Her word reading, spelling and writing skills are strong.
She got a B in 7th grade English, a C in Social Studies, and a B in Spanish. She got an A in 8th grade math (she had been placed a grade above in math) and an A in 7th grade science. As a result, she will be able to take honors math in 8th grade, which is basically the first year of high school math. Katie Anne was in 7th grade chorus and in the band, and got an A grade and a note of appreciation for her fine efforts from both the chorus teacher and the band director.

She could work on Time Management like completing her assignments on time. To learn time management skills we work together on projects at home and take time to talk about the steps necessary to complete the task. I feel this will help her learn to manage time. At home I am rewarding her with privileges when she completes her homework, however, I refuse to pay her for her grades as some of her friends parents do. Instead, she can do extra chores to earn money.