Caden - age 9

School: Caden is in the 4th grade this year. He is really motivated to read this year and finish books. I don't know what his teachers are doing, but it is working. He is reading longer chapter books, preparing for the Battle of the Books competition, and logging more reading time than he is required to. Math seems to come easy for him and I am excited to have him compete in UIL Number Sense this year. His teacher recommended that he be tested for the gifted and talented program at our school. He just finished testing and will find out in a couple of months if he qualified. He really hopes he did. Mrs. Baker teaches him math/science and Mr. Mahler is his teacher for language art/social studies.

Activities: Caden loves to play in the backyard with the neighbor girls (and boys when they come over). He loves to organize team sports in the backyard. Caden is also a bear in Cub Scouts. He loves going to Cub Scouts with the boys from church. They meet on Tuesday nights from 7-8. It is late when he gets to bed and we sometimes wonder if that late night makes the rest of the week harder for him.

Piano: This is Caden's second year of taking piano. At the beginning of the school year we switched from Mrs. Connie to Mrs. Verzello. Mrs. Verzello teaches in our neighborhood less than 1/2 mile from our house. Switching has been so convenient and we're happy with the new teacher. All the kids have lessons on Friday afternoons and he usually takes the middle spot.

Friends: Caden is a great friend. I am proud of him for being friends with all the kids even kids with special needs. He plays kickball at recess with a bunch of kids and comes home upset at times when he doesn't think things are fair. He likes to win and gets upset if he is always on the losing team.

Chores: At times Caden can be easily distracted from doing his chores. He loves to do chores with Mom or Dad and talk, talk, talk. If left on his own, he procrastinates his chore work. Lately he has been really helpful with doing the dishes. He doesn't complain but just gets right in and does a great job. He can fit more dishes in the dishwasher than anyone. His chores include: unloading the dishwasher, setting the table, doing dishes, putting away laundry, helping with Sydney and Sage & cleaning bathrooms.

Quirks: Caden follows in his father's footsteps in one key way that we are noticing right now. He likes to see if can fool/trick people. Some people in our family call this lying but to them it is a game akin to fishing I hear. Recently we went to Wal-Mart and Caden bought a Lego set with his own money. He came home and told Parker that I had given him an early Christmas present. He likes to see if he can get a loud/upset/large response from other people.

Halloween: This year for Halloween Caden wanted to be something gory. We found these wound tatoos, ripped a white shirt and found him this hat. We were calling him a gangster zombie. At the church activity he was having his picture taken when another kid (in a group of 3 older boys) made a rude comment about his costume. Caden heard them. It upset him to the point that he hid behind the piano for the whole activity. Nothing we could do or say would convince him to come out. When he did emerge a few people saw him and made positive comments about his costume (in this case Ewww! was positive). On Halloween night he got positive feedback as well and it ended up working out.

Future: Right now Caden says he wants to be an engineer or a doctor when he grows up. He also talks regularly about being a store manager. He is good at solving puzzles and good at arguing. He is good at doing math in his head.