Second Grade: I'm Glad to be Me

The Viewpoint of the Second-Grader

Many parents wish we kids were perfect all the time - getting good grades, being talented, acting mature and well behaved even on special trips and vacations. While we know this may be impossible, we would like to tell you what we can do.

Social Development

Playing is fun, and winning is the name of the game. Although we are now just starting to learn how to lose, we hate to admit defeat and may be sore losers.

It is not unusual to see us spending more time alone - doing projects, watching TV or sitting outside. Sometimes we may be brooding, moody, sad, thinking, and, yes, even daydreaming. Who knows? We may be thinking about the next type of collection to start - rocks, bottle caps, baseball cards, ants, posters, stickers. We are just learning to sort things out in our minds. This is why collections are so interesting to us.

We love to talk. Sometimes we even exaggerate. When we fight, we use words more often than fists.

Friendships are becoming more special. We enjoy sharing possessions - sometimes swapping them, like secrets. But though we enjoy our friends, we still like time for ourselves.

It's getting easier to get along with brothers and sisters (though the closer we are in age, the more likely we are to quarrel). We need your help when we play and work together so we can learn to appreciate each other. But don't try to "fix" our disagreements. We need to begin to learn how to do this for ourselves.

Intellectual Development

We are more serious and less impulsive than we were last year. We lack the confidence we displayed a year ago since we are realizing there are many things we need to learn. Our thinking is tied to here and now. We have some difficulty remembering the past and planning the future.

We are beginning to understand concepts and categories. When we were younger, all dogs were the same to us. Now if you say "dog," we are beginning to understand that you may be referring to a poodle, collie or German shepherd.

Our thought process is becoming more complex. We can think ourselves back to the beginning of a problem and start out in another direction. This allows us to think back to determine where a lost object may have fallen or rework a problem.

Learning to read is a tremendous help in developing our sense of self-esteem. Reading is just beginning to be a favorite pastime for us, but please don't stop reading to us. We still need and enjoy the special time you share with us while reading a favorite book. Help us find easy-reader books that we can read to you! We need to be encouraged to develop a love for reading.

Home Responsibilities

We enjoy pleasing adults, but we also want to assume more responsibilities. Many of us make our bed, clean our room, hang up clothes and place dirty clothes in the laundry hamper. Here is a list of some tasks we can do - but remember, we should not be expected to do all these duties. Also, we may need supervision as we undertake new tasks. Explain what you expect of us carefully.

1. Take phone messages and write them down.
2. Run errands for parents.
3. Wash dog or cat.
4. Train pets.
5. Get up in the morning and go to bed at night on our own.
6. Be polite, be courteous, respect others and share.
7. Carry our lunch money and notes back to school.

PS: Don't expect us to do all these tasks at once.

We are sensitive to adult evaluation and work hard to please teachers, parents and other adults. We want to know immediately how we have performed.

When you parents show an interest in our schooling and pride in our achievements as well as our efforts, we try hard to live up to your expectations.

Please be patient and encouraging with us. We need to hear that it is OK for us to make mistakes. Compliment our efforts as well as our successes. Let us know that we're on the right track and that you're proud of us for trying.