Parent Teacher Conferences

We did 3 of them yesterday.  The girls did student-led conferences, where they do all the talking.  Interesting.  Big sister did a power point presentation.  There were graphs showing her scores compared to the rest of the class.  She's way above in every category.  Little smarty pants.  She is a peer tutor during math, meaning she's assigned to help the kids who are really struggling.  Apparently she's really good at helping the other kids understand the math concepts they are learning.  Totally her father's daughter!  Her improvement goal was to improve in typing/keyboarding.  I asked her how many WPM she wanted to get to, and she said "100, like you!"  I tried to explain that I only got to be that fast in high school, and perhaps a more achievable goal at this point would be 40.  Funny girl. 

Little sister is doing awesome as well.  Her teacher had the graphs on paper, and she's well above where she should be at.  It still blows me away how far she's come from the special needs preschool.  I can't say enough about how much early intervention has helped my kids!  She did a self-assessment of how well she's doing things like listening, following directions, etc.  She was rather brutally honest.  There was one category that she was way below average on, which was turning in her reading books on Monday in exchange for new ones.  She reads the books, and loves to do so.  But she cannot for the life of her remember to turn them back in on Mondays.  The teacher asked about that and I told her I felt like it needed to be little sister's responsibility to remember to put them in her backpack, so I don't do it for her.  And I don't always remember to remind her.  The teacher agreed that little sister needs to remember.  Since their school is really working on the 7 habits for highly effective people, we discussed putting first things first.  Little sister pointed to that part of her self assessment and said "Yeah, I'm just not very good at that one."  Her teacher and I just laughed.  At least she's honest!  The teacher convinced her to at least try to work on it and she said "Well, okay then!"  This child is a crack-up!

Big brother's conference was good.  I hadn't really met his new teacher except at the open house in August, so I was really looking forward to getting to know her better.  We discussed the goals his old teacher had set, and he's met or almost met most of them.  It'll be time for a new IEP soon.  He's really doing well in his progress.  I could tell she was nervous when she brought out the kindergarten assessment they had done.  It was just a sample of the real assessment they'll do in the spring.  She was not aware that we are not set on sending him to kindergarten next year, so I think she was concerned that I was in for a surprise with the results.  Basically, the whole team gets together and discusses where they are at versus where they should be at by the time kindergarten starts.  Academically, he's right where he should be.  He knows his letters, shapes, numbers, colors,etc.  He is very bright.  However, his motor skills and communication skills are still in the 3-4 year range.  There's 2 options for him from their viewpoint.  Regular kindergarten and a "developmental" kindergarten, which would basically be a continuation of the special needs preschool.  Doing the preschool for one more year is not an option.  She said when the team discussed big brother, they were all stumped.  He's not delayed enough for the developmental kindergarten, but they don't really feel like he's ready for the regular one, either.  So when I told her that I plan on sending him to another year of the regular preschool that he's in now, she seemed relieved.  We discussed a lot of the different things he still has to overcome and she completely agrees with me (and husband) that starting him too early would be setting him up to be behind the rest of his school career.  That's a long time.  So glad that she's on board with my alternative plan.  We decided that they would keep working towards the goals he needs to achieve and kind of ignore the benchmarks he needs to make for kindergarten.  For now, she will keep in contact with me on his progress, and when registration for kindergarten is due in the spring, we'll have another sit-down to discuss where he's at.  It really is so nice that his teacher is on the same page as we are!  Honestly, at this point, I really feel like he'll be waiting another year.  He could really turn a corner in these next few months, and that would be great.  But I'm not counting on it.  The funny part of this meeting.  She told me that big brother is one of her best kids, and he's always well behaved.  She has never seen a fit or a tantrum.  (Lucky her.)  She did say that she cannot get him to be silly.  Ever.  He is just stoic and serious all the time.  Yup, this is husband's introverted personality for sure!  Big brother can be silly, and loves to laugh.  But, just like Husband, social situations are not comfortable at all to him.  So he is serious and on guard.  I love seeing their personalities form, and seeing how much my kiddos are like me and like Husband!