what happened to my girl?!

Until recently Hannah had been doing very well in school. Then suddenly she started having problems with her work and spending a lot of time in work hall. That is where you go during recess if you don't finish your work in class. That wasn't horrible. I understand that sometimes you don't get your work done in class if it is harder for you or something. But then she started going to work hall and still not getting her work done after half an hour of extra time, sometimes not even doing anything!

Math has always been hard for her. Just like it was for me. I always hated math. I never could get it, no matter how hard I tried. I just didn't understand. And my dad was a math teacher! So I was hoping my kids would excel in it so I don't have to go through it all over again with them.....not gonna be the case with my girl.

So when it was time for parent/teacher conferences a few weeks ago, of course, I was not going to miss it! The teacher and I had been writing notes back and forth already but we needed to sit down and talk. Hannah and I are both very lucky that she has such a good teacher who tries to spend extra time with her (as much as she can with a class of 20 rambunctious first graders) and gives me extra papers for Hannah to do at home. We were both very confused about what happened all the sudden. It seems that she can't focus in class. Her teacher says she sits there and stares off into space while she is teaching the class and often has to be directed to where they are on a page. She doens't get in trouble for talking, which I thought would be a big problem for her. Her teacher has tried moving her to a table by herself so she doesn't have the distraction of all the other kids. She still acts like she has no idea what is going on a lot of the time. Teacher seems to think that she is just "immature" for her age and hasn't figured out how to focus and pay attention and that she should grow out of it. It's just now becoming an issue because now the work isn't easy and she actually has to think about things. I don't know. I'm in no way a teacher. We also both noticed that she has no confidence in herself so she always doubts her answers. So we do extra math homework every night on top of her spelling words that we have to practice every night and she reads to me. I hate that she spends all day in school and then has lots to do in the evening. I'm praying this isn't going to be the way it is her whole school career. And I'm praying for an answer to her problem, patience on my part when we are doing work here, and that she will become confident in herself!