We had our parent-teacher conferences the very first day we could. The kids always love conferences because it means they get to go to the book fair. Daddy and I are always excited because we get to hear about our kids. Fortunately we have amazing kids so we don't hear anything bad. Every parent loves to hear how great their kids are so we're pretty thrilled when this time comes around.
We had Kayda's conferences first. Per usual she is at the top of every subject. She is such a hard worker and the teacher is thrilled to have her in class. Her teacher is new this year and hasn't really figured out how to handle the class. The class often loses recess time and such but Kayda gets to go out because she is pretty much always on task. She is usually done with her work well before the other kids and spends a lot of time reading. With the teacher being new it means that Kayda isn't getting the push that she needs. I'm working with her teacher trying to find things that will push Kayda but it's not easy. Kayda loves being in school, she loves being in student council and (despite the classroom management issues) she loves her teacher. We're working with the teacher to try to find ways to accommodate Kayda's level. Right now she is starting a research project on ocean pollution. I'm working behind the scenes to try and figure out what exactly she should be doing and to try to guide her along the way. Most of the work is intended to be done at school but right now she's so excited to be doing it that she works on it a lot at home. She loves to learn so much and I hope that we can keep that going.
Carson's conference was next. He is ahead of a lot of the kids in his class he already knows his alphabet and sounds. The only one he struggles with is the Y sound but he self corrected so she thinks he'll have it down in no time. There were a few other things that the teacher wasn't sure if his speech was getting in the way of expressing the knowledge so we're working on arranging for either her or his speech therapist to do his testing at school. He understands sequencing across the board. The concept was pretty new and was demonstrated by putting events in order. His teacher was VERY impressed when he, without prompting, extended that to putting numbers in order. He is a very calming influence in the class. He is always on task and apparently when kids sit at the table with him the whole table does better behaviorally. She told us that he surrounds himself with kids that are also calm and on task. She encourages other kids to be his friend because of the influence he has. She often uses what he's doing to help show other kids what they should be doing, and that started just a couple of days into the school year. He can already count to 49 and they only have to be able to make it to 100 by the end of the year. He still needs to learn his 3D shapes and he struggles with triangle. Overall he is doing outstanding and you can tell that his teacher ADORES him.
Dillon's conference was last, and with one of our favorite teachers. She had Kayda last year and was so impressed. When Dillon came in she was super impressed with him too. She told us that he is on task, helps other kids, is always kind and inclusive. He is right where he should be for his grade level everything but his math and reading comprehension, which are a little higher than most. They each get to work with the teacher to make a goal to work toward. He decided that he wants to work to get the highest reading comprehension score possible. When I come in to his class to volunteer it is right as they come in from recess and they have silent reading time. There are always some kids just kind of looking around and fiddling with pages but Dillon is always diligently reading. He has already mastered his 0,1,10, 2 and 5's for multiplication. He is currently working on his 3's. Occasionally the kids will get to choose a song to dance to in their class (they have to earn a certain number of good behavior points). I got to witness it. She put a song with a video from "Kid's Bop" on the projector screen. The kids on the show dance and her class dances with them. I should sign him up for dance class because he was IN TO it. He was right there with the kids on the screen and he was intense!
Over all we are blessed with three outstanding children. They're all great kids and they all have different strengths. We love hearing about their school experience and I love being able to witness snippets of it every week when I'm in their classrooms. I dread the day that they get big enough that they don't want me there, or when they'll stop wanting to give me hugs and kisses at the school doors before we part ways. Watching them grow up is amazing, but every now and again it makes me sad.
