Conferences

We had a whirlwind day of school conferences. 8 in all! We were very pleased with how all the kids are doing though and so excited to be able to connect with all the kids teachers. Andrew had the most conferences by far. Now that he is in middle school we had 5 teachers to meet with instead of just one. Andrew is doing amazing in middle school. It is a fabulous fit for him. He is organized and thriving with all the change and hubbub with moving from class to class, keeping his binder organized and tackling all the work and projects coming from all kinds of directions. The best part of the conference about Andrew was when the teachers told us that he is a kind, helpful, attentive student in class. Those are positive character traits and they are more important to us than any number of A grades in classes.

Zane's conference went equally well. He is doing phenomenal and his teacher wants to retest him for the highly capable program in the spring. She said that he is doing beyond extremely well in math and is definitely ready and capable to do the work that the hi-cap kids are doing. She also said that he is an on task leader in the classroom and is hoping to use him to help a couple of kids that are struggling a bit more socially in class.

Lucy is doing really well in school in just about every area. She is testing a smidgen low in reading so they are going to do some pull out extra reading help with her to hopefully propel her up to where she needs to be by the next assessment. That information was no real surprise to either of us. Lucy has never truly enjoyed reading or even being read to. She is very active and reading is an extremely static activity. On the positive side though, she is doing amazing at writing and at math. Lucy's teacher said that writing is a much more difficult process than reading so it is interesting that Lucy loves to write and illustrate books while she does not enjoy reading them at all. I think it is because writing is somewhat active and she can get her wiggles out while she is doing it. Lucy is doing amazing in class and is quite a good listener when she needs to be.

Gwen is doing so extremely well in kindergarten! I was very nervous at the beginning of the year. We worked daily on letter recognition and it was a very slow process to get her to recall the letter names. So I was very curious to hear if she was on track or not. Her teacher told us that Gwen is right where she should be. She knows almost all of her letter names and sounds and is well on her way toward being able to read. She can tap out the sounds in words and is very close to being able to blend the sounds together. I have full confidence that she will be reading by the end of the school year. My guess is she will have the blending piece down by January. Gwen is a great listener in class and her behavior is exactly on task. She does tend to be a perfectionist in her work and will add more details than necessary to her drawings when she should be adding words but that is a problem we can deal with. Gwen and Andrew are very similar in that way.

All in all a fabulous conference experience. I am excited to hear how they go in the spring!