• Chess! The kids will all start learning to play chess. Chess will teach the kids skills like strategic planning and problem solving. Kids will have tournaments later in the year with the other 2nd graders and the 3rd graders.
• Science: balancing things, something in the middle, and insects. The kids will grow butterflies and other insects this spring.
• Reading: kids will be broken up into smaller groups based on their skills both in phonics and comprehension/fluency.
• Math: our school district is in flux as the district will be adopting a new math curriculum next year. This year will be a mish-mash of the old and the new and supplemental materials as the teachers get the kids up-to-date on anything they are currently missing before moving to the new program next year. They'll be concentrating on adding/subtracting double-digit numbers and place values among other things.
• Social Studies: the school has a new social studies program that they're tyring out on our kids this year. Teachers seem excited about it. Steve liked the text book.
• Writing: the kids will practice writing narratives, both fiction and "fact" (or non-fiction).

Oh, and one other interesting thing: no one knows what to do about handwriting. How valuable is it? Both in neatness and cursive writing. Most adults go to a computer when they have to write anything much longer than a paragraph. The school and district will be doing some research to come up with something.

I'm sure there was more and if I discover anything really interesting, I'll post it here.

In the meantime, a Ben moment.

Our playground ends at a big tall hill. The kids run up the hill and play up on the top of it. Just barely out of earshot and out of sight if they go in the woods, which they are not supposed to do. Ben and his friend Alex came running down from the hill covered in reddish streaks: on their faces, their hands and arms, everywhere. Turns out the kids found some blackberry brambles (I know, you can't throw a stick out here without it getting tangled in blackberry brambles). They had snack, and then wrote on themselves with the juice and then painted sticks so that it would look like blood.

I just shake my head and say, "Boys."