Student observation n. 2 Age: 6 Race: Caucasian Gender: Male Grade: Kindergarten Location: Observation took place in the student's home after school. Conversation with the mother: Single mother, she left the child's father immediately after she turned one. The girl's father still sees his son, but has had some problems with medications, so visits are limited and under the supervision of the paternal grandmother's mother. The mother works 50 hours a week to support her small family. She attended college until her senior semester, at which time she left to accept a promotion. He is halfway through his graduate program. He plans to return to major in Anthropology and possibly teach. He struggles with the guilt he feels for not being able to spend as much time with his son. As a result, they do most of their homework in class and leave very little homework. Compared to the older students I observed, much less time was spent on homework in this family. The only task was to review the sight words. He struggled with this at the beginning of the year, because 50 words all at once was too much for him. His mother started showing him only 10 a day and gradually reached 50 in a week. Now he adds two or three every day and he has started to excel. The student has difficulty sitting still while doing homework and during most homework the mother tells me this. He jumps from one side of the couch to the other, at one point spinning across the floor. He's so excited to tell her all about his day that he can't do it. While they prepare dinner, the student tells his mother all about his day. He had a little girl in the yard who called him girl because her toes were painted. His mother asks what he thinks and he replies "I'm a boy." “I just like having my toes painted.” The mother laughs and agrees that the other boy is silly. While preparing dinner, they read the book the student chose from the library, as they do most evenings. Today's choice is "Pete the Cat," a repeat, the mother points out, and one of her favorites. While his mother reads he is concentrated but still has difficulty sitting still. He moves his hands around each other constantly stirring them. He is starting to recognize many words and has been working on reading on his own. Before I leave, I thank the student for allowing me to observe and tell him how smart he is for knowing so many sight words and coming so close to reading on his own. He tells me he can count to 100 and shows me before leaving. His mother tells me that the requirement for the end of the year is to be able to count to 20, and he is already at 100. He explains that he loves everything about mathematics and is always excited to show off what he has